Anthurium Art

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Nature often repeats her patterns and shapes, especially when they are successful. No doubt you have seen the spiral in the nautilus shell (often used as a visual to explain the mathematical terms of the Golden Mean or Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence). That spiral shape is also found in many plants, such as in the branches of an agave, the petals on the head of an artichoke, fruitlets of a pineapple, and in pine cones.

Ripples, twists, fractals, branching and more … we see recurring Nature’s patterns everywhere from the cracked dry earth to the veining in leaves to the billows of cloud patches, the scales on a snake, soap bubbles, honeycomb, and the staggered rows of kernels on corn cobs. Under water, over water, even water: the repetition of shapes, lines, and textures are everywhere. We are fascinated, as well as comforted by their beautiful design.

In what may be becoming my New Years' Eve tradition, I now would like to introduce you to another intentionally erotic artwork… if this is not your kind of thing, please just stop reading and go do something more interesting.

The concept, of course, is about the beauty and function in Nature’s repeating patterns.


“Anthurium”
pastel on black Firenze-brand paper
9” x 25”
$1800 + $20 shipping (6.75% sales tax to Texas destinations)

The idea for this pastel painting titled “Anthurium” was birthed back in 2007 in Florence, Italy. I did a commissioned pencil drawing for an Italian flower vendor who opened shop every day (but Sunday) in the piazza closest to my rented flat.

One day he asked me if I could do a drawing from a photograph and when I responded with a shrug, “Perché no?”, he pulled out a small, dark photo of himself, posing in shorts with an almost body builder physique. He seemed quite pleased to see the surprise in my face. It had never occurred to me that he would want me to do a drawing of him.

At the time, I had not yet created many images of a figure in an environment. Despite my very long days at the Angel Academy of Arts, I came home each night and worked really hard to create a drawing that I wanted to sign. The reference photo was horrible, so I immediately decided to create my own design around the figure. I came up with a border reminiscent of the shape of Florence’s famous Duomo and drew flowers around my friend’s image.

When I was nearing completion, I took the drawing over to show him and he actually made me remove one of the flowers I had chosen for its compositional value, and he said to me with a straight face, “THIS is my favorite flower.” I looked at the flower he pointed to, looked back at his expression, and thought, “You have got to be kidding me!”

I never could tell if he was or not, but I finished the drawing with his beloved anthuriums and he seemed genuinely delighted with it. Some ideas hang inside my head for years before they manifest themselves. I hope this one makes you smile.

I wish you a colorful and joyful 2011, full of ups more than downs and an honest appreciation of Nature’s offerings. Thank you for reading my blog and cruising along with this artistic journey.

Silver Trees Painting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I live out in the country southeast of Austin, Texas, surrounded by trees. Sometimes the lighting on the naked narly branches of oaks stops me in my tracks. Near my home, there is an open brown field in front of a row of trees. The drama came from the dark skies of an approaching storm coming up from behind. As I passed by, I had the impression of the trees being silver.

So, in this 9” x 12” acrylic painting on canvas, I tried to capture some memory of this lighting situation. I actually used metallic paints for the tops of the trees. As is often the case with most of my works, there is a point in which I do not like the work because I feel that I am failing. I began to wonder about having a subject and composition as simple as a mostly horizontal row of trees. But I know now to plod through this stage and usually, I can turn it around to rediscover what caught my attention in the first place. This happened with this painting as well.

As I worked and also as I approached this painting with a fresh eye after working on something else, and in different times of day, I began to see how the painting actually was reminding me of my interest in the original scene.




The other thing that I have been enjoying about metallic paint is that the image looks different in different lighting situations. I include a few images here, so you may see some of her changing effects. I also rolled the paint into the trees, hoping to adds a few bumps with which to catch the light.

For me, this painting grows on me more and more and I find myself at peace with all of the horizontal lines in the composition, with just a few subtle diagonals for a wee bit of variety. I hope you like.

“Silver Trees-Texas”
Acrylic on Canvas 9” x 12”
Copyright 2010 – 2011 Kelly Borsheim
$550

Florentine Sunset Pastel Painting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

So, we are still in bella Italia - at least in my mind anyway.
A lot of cities are built around rivers. They often remain much of the focal point and a cherished part of each city. While I have not traveled as much as I would have liked to, nor do I normally live in a city, I love the energy of Florence, Italy. Her river, the Arno River, is not one that I would neither swim in nor eat anything that came out of her. However, she enchants me just the same.

I have been lucky enough to live in the central part of Florence for long enough stretches of time that I have seen many gorgeous sunsets during the course of my “haunting” the city at dusk. It never gets old.

I decided to create a pastel painting, with metallic acrylic painted highlights, to share with you some of my absolute delight with Florence’s Arno River and one of the several bridges over her.

“Florentine Sunset” (Firenze, Italia)
12” x 16” Pastel with Acrylic Painting
copyright 2010-2011 Kelly Borsheim
$800



Would you like to learn how to do this for a Hawaiian sunset? If yes, come join me at Kona Village Resort on the Big Island in Hawai’I for art workshop “Pastels in Paradise”. Dates are April 17-22. 2011, so register now!

Officina Ristorante Colle Di Val D’Elsa Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Whether you use it or not, social media, such as Facebook, connects people, and sometimes in wonderful and otherwise unlikely ways. It was through Facebook and our common love of Florence, Italy, that the Diva of Divina Cucina, Judy Witts Francini, and I met. I am not sure if I have met anyone as intensely interested in most everything as Judy is. It is no wonder that people from all over the world come to take her cooking classes and her tours of Tuscany.

While I was still in Italy this past summer, Judy introduced me to the Officina della Cucina Popolare restaurant in a little town called Colle di Val d’Elsa, not far from her home in Certaldo. The drive from Florence was lovely. If you would like to see some of my snapshots along the route, visit my Facebook album about the Italian countryside.




I would have preferred to eat lunch there so that there was time to explore the medieval town, but my schedule would not allow it. Colle di Val d’Elsa is known for its lead-glass products and appears to be one long stretch of a town, running along the spine of a hill. The light on the long days here was starting to fade and I tried to get off a few images before the sun was completely gone. We parked (for free) outside of a very castle-like looking entrance all the “Porta Nova.” Not far inside is L’Officina on the right.

We sat outside to enjoy the evening air. The restaurant is very simple and therefore not overly “Italian” as more touristy places can be sometimes. The place had few visitors when we arrived on a Friday night just as they opened, but Italians eat later and the place was completely full before half-way through our dinner. The food was creatively prepared, beautifully displayed and a wonderful sensation for the taste buds.




The owners prefer a more organic way to live, serving food grown by sustainable local farmers and friends. Their menus are from recycled materials, such as these sides of wine boxes that you see in my photos. Their glasses are cut wine bottles.


I am not difficult to please when it comes to food, generally being happy if anyone but me prepares it. However, in the hands of people with passion for food, I can be completely blown away by the quality of the dining experience! This dinner was superb. I can honestly say that I never felt so … enchanted . . . with a bowl of cheese soup before. Pictured here with the fresh celery for dipping, mmm mmm mmmmmmmm


So, I apologize for not recording exactly what I ate here – sometimes it is difficult to live life and record it at the same time. The meat dish was wonderful and the one image shows Judy demonstrating to me how the traditional Italian cheese gourd-shaped ball is “unraveled” and eaten by locals.



Of the four friends who own and operate the Officina, I met Nicola Zak Bochicchio (isn’t he beautiful?) that evening as he successfully tempted us with the dessert menu. Like me, Judy prefers to order different items and then have all the table guests taste a little of each as they choose. I include three of our choices here. Please note that these are just snapshots with a flash (horrible!) and yet, these desserts still look so yummy (and they WERE)! And to top it all off, the prices were surprisingly affordable.




This last image is one I took that night as we exited through the same Porta Nova. I may not know much about food, but I have a pretty good understanding of the beauty of light. I will be returning to Colle di Val d’Elsa and definitely to the Officina, only for a longer visit next time. I hope you have a chance to experience this kind of traditional Tuscana too.

Useful Links:

• Officina della Cucina Popolare
  
• Facebook page for L’Officina
  
• Divina Cucina’s Review of L’Officina
  
• Judy’s site for Divina Cucina – Everyone should try being Tuscan at least once a day
  

May the Yule Tide Spirit of Christmas be with you always.

Madonna Fiorentina

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Street painting in Italy has helped me to meet a great number of people that I would not have met without this art activity. One of my colleagues in the art of the madonnari is a Florentine-born young woman named Laura. I always thought her face striking and of a certain type that seemed so classical in shape and coloring that I had recognized from this part of the world. For years, I had thought to paint her face.

As luck would have it, back in 2009, she told me that she wanted to try modeling. So I hired her for one of my Open Studios in Florence and drew the charcoal sketch of her portrait that you see here.


I am not sure what exactly made me re-create this work with Laura as a Madonna portrait, but it probably had something to do that we both work as madonnari. Madonnara is the Italian word for one female streetpainter. The word is based on the history of these artists creating devotional drawings to the Madonna in the streets in front of the churches in Italy.

I created this artwork titled “Madonna Fiorentina” in pastel on Pastelbord. She is 12” x 9” I include a detail shot here because I want to show you how softly textured pastel on board looks. It is quite lovely.

Happy Birthday, Mamma Mia!

Daddy Longlegs

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

One of the benefits of working outside is noticing all of the “critters.” The other day I got to see a single ladybug on my marble “Gymnast” sculpture project. I do not really see ladybugs that often here, and that red round body contrasting with the white marble was fun.

More recently, I approached my marble work to find a Daddy Longlegs hanging out under the figure’s right arm. They are harmless and friendly enough. But I do worry that I will damage one of those delicate legs. I shooed him away, but then realized that my electric rotary tool apparently had no juice. After trying several sockets and wiggling lots of wire parts, I took it into the shop to take things apart.


Inside, one wire just pulled out WAY too easily. Most wire is coated with only the tips showing exposed metal. In this case, this tip had broken off inside the tool. Fixing it was just a matter of cutting away more of the plastic tubing around it and reattaching the wire.


When I returned to my carving site, my Daddy Longlegs friend was back, hiding under the left arm this time.

Nature's holidays are best - happy solstice! The skies were solid clouds (still are) over my home in central Texas, so I missed any chance of seeing the lunar eclipse last night.

Klimt Copy Kiss

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Long-time readers of my blog might remember that last year I won a blogging award from Casey Klahn for the entry I made about my trip to Vienna to see live Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”

In Italy this August, I wanted to recreate this artwork in the streets of Portofino, a charming coast town on a northern Italy peninsula. But the police and city hall were having none of it (streetpainting), despite our having found a few small surfaces on which we could have created some art in chalk and pastel without being in the way of pedestrians or cars. Boh!

Anyway, as it happens, there seem to be a lot of requests for copies of famous artworks, Klimt’s “Kiss” being one of the favorites. So, I broke down and painted one in mixed media. My copy of the famous painting is only 22” x 18” -- MUCH smaller than the original.
I hope you like her. She is available for sale . . . only $1600. Oh, and I did not recreate the coloring that I noticed in the original artwork. I decided to keep the whole image pretty much warm and keep the romance going . . .



PS. I have been re-posting lots of images that some of my friends in Florence, Italy, have been taking of the unusual snow layers blanketing the Renaissance City now. They are quite charming! If you would like to see some, please “befriend me” on Facebook. In the meantime, I hope that you have someone to snuggle with in the chilly temperatures of winter. Also, check out the total lunar eclipse on Monday night. Click here for specific details about when and what.