My first contact with Art was in Italy as a child in my father's mosaic studio. The translucency of mosiac fragments and the way colours can vibrate against each other always fascinated me.
These were mainly reproductions of early religious images where the use of symbolic figures made me realise that an Art image has its own reality. This and the spectrum of European Art is my attempt to create new expressive images.
Colour is very important to me, it helps me convey emotion in all my subjects. My landscapes and buildings are evocative of Tuscany, the land where I grew up. My figurative work is a symbol of human and self introspection. With the use of props, objects, clues, relating to the figure I hope to engage the viewer in my communication.
Tuscan medieval Frescoes depicting biblical stories in a stylised manner have had an enormous influence in my early formation as an Artist. Even now my figurative work can still have reference to the Madonna icons and frescoes.
Often the female figure is represented in a symbolic and contemplative manner. I am fascinated by people and their mystery.
What are they thinking? And what is the association with the objects that they are surrounded with?
My work is varied and often developed from an idea encountered during a journey that takes me in an unknown territory where I grow as an Artist. I usually work in small series of paintings, where memory and imagination come to interplay. Time made me more familiar with Northern landscape and it finally has left a mark in some of my work, as I become more intrigued by its drama and atmosphere.
I have gone back to the use of Ink wash for the dramatic effect of the black
and white (and hundreds of subtle shades of grey in between). This medium
is particularly suggestive for night scenes.
Another area I have experimented in is Monotype (sometimes used in conjunction
with collage). This is still an original work, unique, but created with the
use of printmaking tools like block printing inks, stencils and rollers etc.
I use Line Drawing (Reverse Line Drawing) in my Monotype work as a means of
defining a space or form, usually on textured handmade paper so that the line
is more expressive in texture. As with the Line the space or subject is not
completely defined, it leaves the viewer's imagination to interact with the
work. After the initial Line Drawing I usually introduce an element of colour
in the form of collaged handmade painted paper or Watercolour.
Also Linocuts, a technique particularly good for the effects of bold expressive
images. These are very small editions. Some are in conjunction with the use
of Watercolour or Collage, which makes each Print unique.
