One year of Life Drawing in Florence, Italy

 

The first year of Florence's Social Life Drawing has been a real success. Thanks to everyone who participates. We are fortunate to have the help of two art patrons and wonderful attendees in this process. A central, warm location great lighting. Decent heating, comfortable seating and the props necessary for good poses. Thank you, to the British Institute and to John Hoenig for the support in growing this creative community.

 

 

 

You can find us at Lungarno Guicciardini, 15, 50125 Firenze. Ground floor entrance. 

 

The life drawing group is not a school and there are no lessons involved. So no systems or styles of drawing are imposed. Each person does their own thing and if they are so inclined, encourages others to understand why they are drawing in a particular manner. So there is a lot of friendly discussion, banter and debate about the drawings & sketches we produce. Some participants are academically trained and just want to keep up their practice with a convenient model in a social setting while others are exploring the process of creating. At the end of the sessions people share a glass of wine together and cluster, sometimes to look at each others work or just to chat.
 

There are some great people who attend and then there’s me, notoriously grumpy and keeping to myself as I limp my way around the studio. Despite that I do enjoy the company of almost everyone. It’s a challenge to get people to come out of their comfort zones so I don’t try. Everyone is free to just evolve or not, as they wish. 

There is no overall purpose to these drawing events but they are an opportunity to download stuff from the back of the brain and make marks on paper without an obligation to conform. So professionals and experimenters can mix easily.

                                                         

There are two regular evenings.

Monday, every week:
The Monday evenings are every week from 7-9pm and consists of short poses. The short poses begin with a series of 1 minute poses followed by longer and longer ones, eventually working up to 2 x 25 minutes at the end. Some really dynamic pieces have come out of this and there’s a nice energy created in the process.

Drawing by Nele Sadlo

Drawing by Jan Frankin

Wednesday, 1st and 3rd week of each month:
There is also a Wednesday evening event of long poses. This is twice per month and is for people who are more focused, drawing the model in just one position for 2 hours. Both events are brilliant and the long poses give people the opportunity to study things like the portrait, hands, feet or overall posture.

Drawing by Tom J. Byrne

       Drawing by Paul Martini

Both events have a suggested donation of €10, or more if you like and we encourage people to leave a tip for the hard working model, depending on how happy you are with the poses. Materials are not included, so bring along your favorite papers and drawing materials. There are some easels for those who want them.

Our models are both male and female and are professional. Many work for the various art schools in Florence. I’ve been inviting mostly female models because they are easier to find but after many requests I’ll be including more, reliable male models too. 

Drawing by Nele Sadlo

Drawing by Diane Sugalski

Plein Air Landscape in oil, T.J. Byrne

Drawing by Tom J. Byrne

I teach figure drawing and landscape painting with the Florence Studio but there are no lessons in the Monday or Wednesday workshops. You can check out the Florence Studio here. https://theflorencestudio.com/landscape-classes

 

 

PleinAir in Florence, Italy

 One of the rewarding things about Florence is the variety of locations for PleinAir painting. I get out at least 3 days a week in the early mornings, to do this. Thankfully I know other artists who do this practice and from time to time we get the chance go painting together.

 

I was painting in Santa Spirito on Sunday morning at 6.30. Then at 7.30am the antique dealers arrived so I had to vacate and find a new painting location. The new location is brightly lit, with pleasant views of the Arno, Florence, Italy.

 

San Frediano in Cestello oil drawing, preparing for the finished painting.

This church was founded by an Irish missionary in the 6th century. So an Irishman was here 1500 years ago. San Frediano in Cestello sketch, oils on wood.

The finished painting in oils, of the church of San Frediano in Castello, as seen from the banks of the Arno, in the Oltrarno district of Florence.
Oils on treated board. 40cm x 30cm

This painting is available from my online shop. Follow the link here.

Why go to the south of France?

If you're not going to paint the landscape, why go to the south of France?

Everyone talks about the south of France as though it is a heaven for artists. Not everyone who comes here paints the landscape. So why not Paris, there are surely a lot more galleries?

The reason that artists and art collectors both rave about the south of france is the light, the people and the history, the space it gives you to think and the changing seasons and colours. The best time to come to the south is not the summer. Despite that, tourists and artists alike flock here at that time. For those who live here, the summer is the least attractive season because of the heat & it's getting hotter of course.

We are in spring now and it's almost as green and rich looking as Ireland. The iris' are in bloom and trees are showing off their rich colours. Blossom is everywhere and plants I've never seen before are showing pink, white, purple & mauve. The light is gentle, yet bright. It's not hot, there is a cool breeze today.

The landscape varies from flat to hilly to mountainous very quickly. It's a human scaled landscape. Most structures are built from local stone. As people can travel so easily now, there are a lot more visitors by car during holiday seasons and land is more valuable to sell for housing than to farm. Despite this, farmers work and cultivate the land, producing the best wines and incredible vegetables. The quality of the food alone is a good reason to live here and always has been.

In the winter the light is perfect and there is no searing heat. Photographs rarely capture the magic of the more simple aspects of the landscape. Yet the artists eye is very impressed by even these parts because of the surprising sense of distance and perspective. The easily perceived definition on everything. The landscapes shines. It fills you up with a new sense of colour and an appreciation for values of light which will help you no matter what you are painting.

When you come here you have to grow into the land as well. We can't have the benefits of the city while enjoying contact with nature. Nature can't survive that. When you come here, be a farmer, an artist or a writer for a while & leave the TV behind.

Narcissus Pickers

This painting is done in Oils and tempera on canvas.
It's for an exhibition in June.
Inspired by events in the south of france this spring.
It measures 150cm x 85cm