Marino Marini Drawings

Dear Art Lover,

     In my last post, I showed you some images of the sculptures of the late Tuscan artist Marino Marini (1901-1980).  These are in the Museo Marino Marini in central Florence, Italy.

    Today, I want to show you some of the drawings by this artist.  I liked them better.  I found them playful more than aggressive, as you may remember my less-than-glowing emotions about the 3-dimensional works.  I will put the dates and titles on the ones that I know.  You may see the progression then from a more classical drawing start into more and more abstract as was fashionable during his lifespan.  Enjoy.

JugglerAndHorse_1977_49x64cm_MagnaniPaper [once made in my valley]

TheSongII_1973_49x64cm_MagnaniPaper [see the dome of the former church in reflection]

MarinoFromShakespeareII_1978_49x38cm

Miracle1952_43x39cm_InkWatercolorWhiteLeadOnPaper

TheBigWar1918-20_InkPencilOnPaper

TheWar1920_48x44cm_PastelWatercolorOnPaper

Portrait1941_35x27cm_InkWatercolorWhiteLeadOnPaper

L-Attesa_1965_lithograph_74x50cm

Drawing-Nude1927

L-Attesa_1965_lithograph_74x50cm  [Waiting]

Gioco di teatro, 1970, etching on paper, 42 x 30 cm; paper size 69 x 49 cm

Helpful related links:

http://museomarinomarini.it/

https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-museums/museum-marino-marini.html

https://www.visittuscany.com/en/ideas/ancient-modern-and-contemporary-the-marino-marini-museum/

     I am currently working out details to offer an art workshop, perhaps focusing on anatomy and design for 2-dimensional media, perhaps create a sort of retreat.  This will be in mid-to-late May 2018 and will be near my home in the hills of Tuscany, between Florence and Lucca.  If you are interested and want to send me feedback on what you would like to work on to improve your art or even what you desire to see in Tuscany, please contact me.   http://BorsheimArts.com/contact.htm

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Marino Marini, Museo, Firenze, Florence, Italy, sculpture museum, museum of one artist, Festival del Disegno, drawings

Marino Marini Sculptures

Dear Art Lover,

     I am not an “artists’ artist.”  In that I mean that I know very little of art history, argue with myself on whether I even want to know or want to look at other artists’ work, especially contemporary, I do not “do labels or classifications,” or know names or titles of even some of my favorite famous works of art, etc.  In short, I feel outside of the art world and different from most of my artist friends and colleagues.  For that reason, I occasionally feel embarrassed about what I do not know in my own field of work and passion.

     My friend Kumiko and I got really lucky this past Sunday during my visit to Florence, Italy [Firenze].  We were looking for a possible exhibit for an Italian artist that I know, but really searching for gelato.  We never got it since we ran out of time [and my friend’s exhibit was not one, it was just a one-night event for a product that was inspired by her work and was over before my visit].  We passed the Museo Marino Marini and saw that it was open.  When I lived in Firenze, I often forgot about this sculpture museum, but sometimes when I was in the area during open hours, I never could make myself want to pay to see inside.

     You see, I just do not like his work.  I see the world in triangles, so one might think that I would like Marini’s sculptures, but I find them too violent and a bit crude for my taste.  And I am not such an elegant person.  I do not believe that art MUST be sweet or portraying only positive things, but I prefer to find beauty in it just the same, perhaps in a similar way that storms and volcano eruptions can be gorgeous to watch, unless you are the recipient of the worst parts of it.  If I want brutality, I will read the papers.

I find it charming that the kid crayons are called "Giotto"

     However, I did enjoy the visit.  It just so happened to be free to enter on Sunday, the first of October, for an event called the “Festival del Disegno.”  Disegno or the verb ‘disegnare’ means two things:  to draw and to design:  Lovely that the Italians see no distinction in these acts.  The festival was for children and they had long rolls of paper laid out on the ground floor to permit children to “street paint” on the paper.  Throughout the museum I noted many young adults sitting and drawing the sculpture or the architecture.  It made for good energy.  Kumiko and I took a couple of shots of each other before heading off to see the rest of the museum.  Those are on Facebook.

The black wood thing below the figure in red is by another [guest] artist

     I photographed enough of the pieces to give you an idea of his body of work.  Some I like alright; some I just really missed feeling any emotion about whatsoever.  I might say that I felt more confused than true negativity on many.  And I tried to put Marino Marini’s work in the context of what was going on in his time.  

 

     A docent nearby was asked about the red color on some plaster dancer figures.  I was curious if the artist had applied it in such a rash way or if over time the pigment had flaked off or something.  Imagine my surprise when she admitted that she had not looked much into his process or thoughts because she does not care for his art!  Hahaha.  One dancer reminded me of Degas’ most famous sculpture; a distant painting [I did not photograph, but agree with her] reminded her of Matisse’s flat, but brightly colored dancers in a ring.  We had a fun conversation, but I decided that since the work was only from 1954 and in plaster (probably kept indoors), it was likely close to its original form and finish.  I decided that his application of the red was intended to be violent and perhaps was a comment on the hard physical abuse a dancer will put her body through.  But, that was only the kindest idea I imagined about the sculptures. 

I found the cobalt blue calming [my favorite color], the horse ok, but no emotion for it

"War" 1959 by Marino Marini

War-one could argue IS an ugly mess

Sculpture titled War - blech

     I will have another blog post about his drawings, which I found much more interesting.  One may see his progression and the ideas of the artists as they were all changing their aesthetic.

     The museum is located not so far from the Trinita bridge and church, tucked away in a small piazza.  The museum was once a church, was de-consecrated, and redesigned as a public space.  Marino Marini lived from 1901 to 1980.  I believe the museum was opened in the mid-1980s and is one of the few museums in Firenze dedicated to one artist, although they have guest contemporary artists exhibiting in the gorgeous dark space below ground.  Maybe I will show you what we saw there that day.  :-)

Helpful related links:

http://museomarinomarini.it/

https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-museums/museum-marino-marini.html

https://www.visittuscany.com/en/ideas/ancient-modern-and-contemporary-the-marino-marini-museum/

     I am currently working out details to offer an art workshop, perhaps focusing on anatomy and design for 2-dimensional media, perhaps create a sort of retreat.  This will be in mid-to-late May 2018 and will be near my home in the hills of Tuscany, between Florence and Lucca.  If you are interested and want to send me feedback on what you would like to work on to improve your art or even what you desire to see in Tuscany, please contact me.   http://BorsheimArts.com/contact.htm

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

I rather like this one because the front two legs of the horse seem to belong to the figure above, twisting...interesting dynamic and energetic shapes.

large figure on a horse

figure on a horse

Ballerina Becomes a Whale

Dear Art Lover,

     Okay, despite the title of this post that I found amusing, no, I did not force feed any ballerinas!  I have returned to the Cava Nardini (Nardini Quarry, in English) to start to carve stone again.  Last fall I started to carve a piece of green marble with white veining that I bought in Pietrasanta, Italy, from a friend of a friend while I dropped off a new composition at a local bronze casting foundry. http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/2016/RockTowersFrogGardenSculpture.htm

     I wanted to learn how to stay at the abstract level, perfect for a stone with a busy pattern of contrasting tones.  I saw a ballerina throwing up a large piece of fabric above her and her flowing gown.  You may see images in one of my blog posts about this stone carving here:

http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2016/10/autumn-in-quarry-vellano-tuscany.html

     While the doctor told me that I should not try to carve stone until four months have passed after the removal of the cast on my broken right wrist, he also told me that after two months I would feel mostly back to normal.  I do not.  I do not have the flexibility back and when I try to push the hand to stretch it, there is pain still.  The cast was removed on 30 June.  My first thought was that if I am not “normal” after the two months, maybe it will be six months instead of four before I should attempt to carve stone.  The vibration too much, too soon, could ruin my wrist for the rest of my life.  I do not want to screw this up since my knee has still not healed.  I am nervous about why things are not getting better.  

     Still, I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, although I might be the one with the hardest head.  The symposium at the quarry is mostly over and the weather has cooled dramatically from this summer, to what I would call perfect carving weather [now that it has stopped raining].  I recently began returning to the quarry to start work again on my ballerina and the other black crystal marble piece I bought at the same time.  I justified that now that I have a car, I am not obligated to spend an entire day there if I need to call it a day sooner than the others.  I also brought more of my die grinders from Texas this past spring and decided that I could grind these chippy rocks, since a hammer and chisel will only destroy them anyway.  I have been using my left hand mostly, while trying to exercise my right a bit more than I was at home.

     I had been watching a crack that was obvious in one section of the dress of the ballerina where a white vein met the green, but we all thought that it MIGHT be a small section since the crack seemed to fizzle out.  One seasoned carver asked me if I wanted to put some glue into the stone, but I am old school… if I know there is a crack in the rock, I need to remove the dead stone and redesign.  Glue seems to me to be just a Band-Aid. 

     And then it happened:   the rock separated.  The section was where I imagined, but deeper.  And, once I pulled off the piece you see in this first image, you may see in the second image that there was now exposed the larger issue [see the crack where I put the red arrows].  The original bottom for the ballerina sculpture is the plane on the right [not visible].  Her billowing fabric is the curve on the left/top edge of the stone.

     It was not difficult to remove the rest.  This was about one-third of the stone!  I was upset, even though I knew the fear was a probable reality.  But then, I justified that my intention was to learn something new and to push myself into abstraction a little bit more.  Ok, so the idea changed, but the exercise is still the same.  Imagine my delight when I looked fresh at the larger piece of rock and saw a whale!  In fact, the leftover tool marks from my diamond disc reminded me of teeth or at least the mouth of the sperm whale… hahah.   Do you see it here?  I am not so great with Photoshop, but tried to draw a thin red curve to follow the flow that made me feel the ocean.

 

Do you see the whale form?  No longer a ballerina in any event.

     The shape is not perfect for that, by any means.  Nor is there enough rock to create accurately the form of the whale, but that still was a bit of the point, no?  I turned the stone to other views and other positions.  I got a kick later at home when I saw the tree coming out of a fish-shaped form, as if it were a vase.  I was so busy looking at the marble that I did not compose my shot other than trying to find something dark behind the marble to show me the form.

Fish Vase?  ;-)

    From the viewpoint in the image below, I actually saw a standing figure – with a triangular neck and head, short triangular arms, and carrying some sort of a pack on his back.  Do you see that also?  Or something else?  Or nothing promising?  

Figure carrying a sack on his back?

vertical jumping whale, maybe?

     In my lips series of stone carving, [see the Zebra Lips as an example here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/stone.htm

], I tried to create other shapes on the back side of the lips.  Not sure that the transitions were all that successful, but the morphing idea intrigues me still.  How to start?  Well, I remembered my friend and mentor Vasily’s voice, “Start with a line that shows your idea.  Make everything else support that line.”    And so, I leave you with my note-taking on the green marble to refine the curve of the whale form that I showed you earlier. Happy weekend!

     In addition, I recently published my September art newsletter with the theme, “Wind, Water, and Wisteria” because alliteration is just fun.  You may read the whole thing online with lots more images here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/201709_Artnews_WindWaterWisteria.htm

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Vernazza Cinque Terre Spotlight Splash Drawings

Dear Art Lover,

     Here are two of my recent charcoal drawings finished:  Spotlight and Splash.  They were inspired by a trip to the Cinque Terre in Italy… specifically, the coastal town of Vernazza.  Where the mountains meet the sea, drama often ensues.  And with what beauty!  I hope you enjoy these works.  They may sell individually, but I offer a savings if bought together or with any other of my artworks.  I will include free shipping so the math is easy.  See some process images and prices online:

 http://www.borsheimarts.com/charcoal-drawing/2017/SpolightSplash-CinqueTerreSeascape.htm

     So, I recently published days ago my September art newsletter with the theme, “Wind, Water, and Wisteria” because alliteration is just fun.  You may read the whole thing online with lots more images here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/201709_Artnews_WindWaterWisteria.htm

     Now, off to continue this precision mural I stopped working on seems like a year ago . . . [it is in my own home, so … ]

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Wind and Wisteria

Dear Art Lover,

     So, I just published days ago my September art newsletter with the theme, “Wind, Water, and Wisteria” because alliteration is just fun.  You may read the whole thing online with lots more images here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/201709_Artnews_WindWaterWisteria.htm

    In it, I introduced a new wall-hanging bas-relief sculpture, Wind and Wisteria.  I have changed the face of “wind personified” a bit to emphasize the action of blowing, and changed the face of the boy a little, in the act of receiving.  But we have had rain here for a solid week and I just could not take another image !  Still you have an idea here in this Photo-shop mock-up of the composition and “airiness” of the art.

Wind and Wisteria shown in clay as if it were bronze sculpture

     As usual, I am offering a pre-casting [lower] price to help me realize a new clay work into bronze.

Check it all out, as well as the story behind this sculpture, here:  http://www.borsheimarts.com/sculpture/2017/WindWisteriaBasReliefWallSculpture.htm

     Now, off to continue this precision mural I stopped working on seems like a year ago . . . [it is in my own home, so … ]

Happy birthday, Michelle Borsheim!

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Water Raindrops Hurricane Watch

Dear Art Lover,

     I seem to have water on my mind a lot lately, as you will see when I publish images of my next two charcoal drawings in my upcoming art newsletter. 

 http://www.borsheimarts.com/newsletter.htm

     Here in Tuscany, Italy, we recently had a decent rainstorm.  I am often enchanted with the light before, during, and AFTER a storm.  This one left us with raindrops everywhere, a bit magical!  I include in this post a few of my favorite snapshots walking around my home the other day.  

     Also, I have a special offer on a work that I did in Texas on the same theme.  I was down in Brownsville waiting for my father to finish some pilot exam he had to take.  “Raindrops on Shell Ginger” was how I amused myself in the garden.  Noticing Nature’s wonders is a joy we should choose to experience.

Raindrops on Shell Ginger

18" x 14"
Pastel on dark green Sennelier paper
© 2010 Kelly Borsheim

$600, ships from Austin, Texas

http://www.borsheimarts.com/pastels/2010/shellginger.htm

Only $600, she ships in a frame for protection, but it is a simple frame and I imagine you might prefer to choose another one.  If you are near Austin, Texas, you may pick the work up there instead of having to pay for shipping.  Zip = 78702

     However, I am not always sure that watching Nature’s wrath is an experience worth choosing.  Almost every single one of my family members in Florida has chosen to stay home this weekend and await the terrible Hurricane Irma.  As I write, I just saw an image in which someone compared Hurricane Andrew [which destroyed both my brother’s and my father’s homes in Homestead, Miami-area 25 years ago] to Irma.  Irma looks about THREE times the size and you probably know she has already caused a lot of havoc and death!  Watch with me:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/irma-atlantic-ocean

Peace,

Kelly Borsheim, artist

http://BorsheimArts.com

P.S. IF original art, while affordable, is STILL a bit out of your budget, or the piece you adored has sold?  Or do you like arty things in different formats, to surround yourself with art?  Looking for a gift?  See my store online for pillow, phone cases, shower curtains, towels, tote bags, and yes, even prints on metal, wood, canvas, and so much more:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-kelly-borsheim.html

Shelter from the Storm - Lemon Tree

See the big dark spot in the sky?  Need new camera: Dirt is inside

Raindrops on Rosemary

My neighbor's dog Yoda enjoyed running around with me.