Art Portrait Drawing

I hope you have enjoyed this last day in Gennaio. Here is the follow-up image of the now finished portrait of my friend Harry that I mentioned in a previous blog and showed you the work-in-progress.

Oh – and I just published my latest newsletter, which I send out to those who sign up for my art newsletter, which is published about six times per year. Click here to read:
Borsheim Art News January 2008



http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2008_01.htm

Moving David from Florence Italy

Arguably the most famous sculpture in the world, Michelangelo’s ‘David’ may be moving. While Florence is trying to manage high traffic in her central historical district, there are some people considering whether or not to move the large tourist attraction outside of the Accademia and the city center. (Pictured here is the fake ‘David’ that is exhibited in Piazza della Signoria.) Read more at:

http://theflorentine.net/
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/01/davids_home_is_in_florence.html

Another article I found via artsjournal.com discussed Michelangelo’s drive to be the best and conceal his efforts while becoming this (by burning most of his drawings). It is a good article, and here are a few of my favorite highlights:

The critic Waldemar Januszczak, who had the chance to scrutinise the [Sistine] ceiling from close quarters from the top of a television scaffold, wrote: "I could see the bristles from his brushes caught in the paint, and the mucky thumbprints he'd left along the margins. The first thing that impressed me was his speed. Michelangelo worked at Schumacher pace. Adam's famous little penis was captured with a single brushstroke: a flick of the wrist, and the first man had his manhood."

. . .
Before he dipped the brush in the paint and set to work on his God and Christ, his Adam and Mary and all the rest, how did Michelangelo prepare himself? We know that, unlike his peers and predecessors, he did not use cartoons to transfer existing designs directly on to the wet plaster, because there are no the telltale peg marks left in the plaster's surface. We know that in some cases he worked from small drawings because a grid can be discerned over the finished work, indicating that he upscaled from a smaller sketch.

But what the norm for his preparation was we simply don't know – because Michelangelo didn't want us to know. Throughout his life he hated showing drawings to outsiders. Vasari claimed that this was because they revealed the endless effort he expended in reaching the perfection at which he aimed. Though he was dependent, like all Renaissance artists, on the patronage of the powerful, even men like Cosimo I were unable to get him to part with a single drawing. Before moving from Rome to Florence in 1518, he burned all the drawings in his house in Rome. Another terrible bonfire took place, on his instructions, at his death. Even Michelangelo's closest friends possessed only a tiny number of drawings, all of them highly finished.

. . .
Then, even while the agonies of the tragic tomb continued to pile up, [Pope] Julius threw another amazing job at Michelangelo. The walls of the Sistine Chapel, the private chapel of the papal household, were already adorned with works by 15th-century masters including Botticelli and Perugino. The ceiling was painted blue, dotted with gold stars. The chapel had long been in disuse because of a large crack in the ceiling. Now Julius wanted it to be drastically renovated, and commanded him to paint 12 large figures of the Apostles on the ceiling.

Imagine the Sistine Chapel ceiling looking like a child’s bedroom of blue and gold heavens !!!

Read more:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/the-sistine-chapel-was-created-500-years-ago-by-michelangeloor-was-it-773079.html

Il Pane Degli Angeli Exhibit Uffizi Gallery

Occasionally, the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, will put on a temporary exhibit (in this case with free admission) of artworks in their collexion that are not normally on display. These are not necessarily lesser works, only works they cannot fit into their current spaces. This exhibit is titled “Il Pane Degli Angeli” or The Bread of Angels.

I met my friend Lisa outside the famous gallery and we also saw our friend Harry there. I liked several of the paintings in this fairly small exhibit and made some brief sketches, an image of which I include here.



The composition on the left is from an olio su tela (oil on canvas) by Pietro Liberi (Padova 1614-Venezia 1687). She is called “Annunciazione” and was painted around 1670. I like the subtle, not quite vertical sweeping curve of the figure on the lower left. And how the angel above’s curling form lead the eye back into the lower figure. There is a wonderful diagonal that gives movement and interest with a beautiful balance of light and dark.

The sketch on the right was done from another, smaller painting with the same title. This artist is Livio Mehus (Oudenaarde 1627-Firenze 1691). It was very interesting to see the same subject handled in similar, yet different ways. It is a good reminder that although artists may influence one another (I do not know if these artists knew each other or not because I forgot to read the background information on the wall), each has his own voice.

If you find yourself in Firenze subito, go see this exhibit. She ends on 3 Febbraio.

Chocolate Festival in Florence Italy

Since Thursday, Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, has hosted the Chocolate Festival. God, a girl could fall in love here! Or perhaps, out. In fact, I saw my friend Janné on the Ponte alle Grazie on Friday afternoon as he peered over the edge into the Fiume Arno (Arno River). He said with some dismay that his girlfriend Alba did not even look at him for a whole hour because she was so enchanted by what she saw at the Chocolate Festival. She especially enjoyed the large sculpture of a chocolate pig. I wish you could have seen his sweet, young sad face as he described their visit there the night before. (No worries, he was not feeling suicidal. He was simply waiting for her to arrive for their lunch date.)



My favorite temptations that I drooled over but have not succumbed to (yet?) were the chocolate liquors, a chocolate with curry, and some choco balls rolled in pistachio. And I am totally enchanted by the assortment of tools, such as pliers, made entirely from chocolate and dusted to look like they are rusty tools. And, some chocolate teas caught my eye. Oh, did I forget the candied ginger dipped in chocolate? Hmmm . . . will I be able to resist returning tomorrow with some euros in hand? It is the last day of this year’s Chocolate Festival in Firenze.

écorché and sight size drawing

My latest progetto is to use the sight-size method to draw an écorché in carboncino (charcoal). An écorché (pronounced ay-KOHR-shay) is a sculpture, in this case in gesso / plaster, that shows the musculature of the body without the skin. I took this image on the 15th of January. You can see the basic setup for drawing. My easel is pulled forward a bit so that my drawing will fit on my paper. The detailed image shows my gesture sketch that I have started to draw in the placements for some of the shadows.

This will be refined as I continue to work.

Melancholia and Innocence

I read today an online article entitled, “In Praise of Melancholy” by Eric G. Wilson. Here is an excerpt that I hope you enjoy:

“Melancholia pushes against the easy "either/or" of the status quo. It thrives in unexplored middle ground between oppositions, in the "both/and." It fosters fresh insights into relationships between oppositions, especially that great polarity life and death. It encourages new ways of conceiving and naming the mysterious connections between antinomies. It returns us to innocence, to the ability to play in the potential without being constrained to the actual. Such respites from causality refresh our relationship to the world, grant us beautiful vistas, energize our hearts and our minds. . . .

Suffering the gloom, inevitable as breath, we must further accept this fact that the world hates: We are forever incomplete, fragments of some ungraspable whole. Our unfinished natures — we are never pure actualities but always vague potentials — make life a constant struggle, a bout with the persistent unknown. But this extension into the abyss is also our salvation. To be only a fragment is always to strive for something beyond ourselves, something transcendent. That striving is always an act of freedom, of choosing one road instead of another. Though this labor is arduous — it requires constant attention to our mysterious and shifting interiors — it is also ecstatic, an almost infinite sounding of the exquisite riddles of Being.

To be against happiness is to embrace ecstasy. Incompleteness is a call to life.”

Read More
http://chronicle.com
Section: The Chronicle Review
Volume 54, Issue 19, Page B11

Leather Shoes Florence Italy

Back around 1997 when I was working as a copyeditor at hoovers.com in Austin, Texas, US, my coworker Regan gave me her old leather lace-up shoes. I love them.

Then in September 2006, I was walking down Via dei Pepi in Florence, Italy, when I was coaxed into a shoe repair place by a man about my age, Giuseppe, and an older man. They were kind enough and I politely looked around their neighboring tiny shops before resuming my course. I had never had shoes professionally repaired before, apparently preferring to “Shoe-Goo” them until they are completely ruined.

Giuseppe ran after me in the street and dropped something into my drawing bag, saying, “segreto” while placing one finger across his lips. I was a bit confused, but thanked him, and we exchanged names and smiles. And this is the way one learns Italian. (The something turned out to be some clear shoe polish in a vertical tube: un regalo, a gift, and apparently a secret one. Hence the reason I am posting this blog, right!)

Then one morning last fall in Florence, I ran into a new friend, Maria. She held a pair of lovely boots in her hand and was searching for a repair place. So, remembering my exchange with Giuseppe, I gave her direxions to Via dei Pepi. Maria was pleased with the service and the negotiated price.

With rain for many days in a row, I recently had to admit that my cherished leather lace-ups were separating at the toe of the soles. Always being shy about bargaining, Maria offered to go with me. We met the older man, a real charmer. Maria told him that she was from Spain and since he loved to travel, the bartering went very well. It also helped that we live here. He handed me a copy of an article that had been written about him in a newspaper, describing him as a giramondo (world traveler).

When I returned at lunch, I had caught the 84-year-old Signore Carmine taking a nap, as though he were simply waiting for my return before closing up shop at 13:00. I had asked him only to repair the separating toe (and not the worn-out heal), but he must have decided that was just wrong. In addition to the repair I had asked for, he cleaned and polished my old shoes, giving them new life. He was so charming. He seemed genuinely happy to see me and even took my hand, pulled back the mitten a little, and kissed my wrist, exclaiming, “Che bella!”

So, my shoes can be worn in the rain again safely, I had a lovely experience, and now I look forward to walking down Via dei Pepi even more than before.

If you find yourself in Florence, Italy, in need of anything shoe- or leather-related, feel free to walk down this street not too far from Piazza Santa Croce. Here is the address:

Petrocelli Giuseppe
Lavorazione e Riparazione
Pelletteria e Scarpe
Via dei Pepi, 28-30 R (R stands for the red lettered address numbers)
50122 Firenze, Italia
Tel. 055 2345099