Saturdays in the Corsini Gardens

Sean and Sara painting this morning.

Sean and Sara painting this morning.

At the moment I am teaching the Florence Academy of Art’s landscape painting class along with Jordan Sokol. Princess Giorgiana Corsini has generously given us the use of the private gardens at her palazzo, which is one of the more beautiful places to paint on an April morning. I took a few pictures this morning as the place is so stunning.

One interesting thing about the course in general is that the advanced painting students tend to have more difficulty that the intermediate group.  I think they assume that because they have painted so much in the studio already that it should be just the same outside. It is actually very different, and they tend to get frustrated quicker that the students with less experience in painting. Another problem I notice every year is that the students bring the wrong materials and think they can just wing it. Painting is so difficult even when your materials are all perfect, it becomes almost impossible if you have missing or incorrect equipment.

This year the class is going well. Today was only our second meeting and already the work is showing great improvement.

Pablo painting the portico.

Pablo painting the portico.

Open studio

My 15 minute attempt at graphic design.

Leo and Josh with the model.

On Friday April 17th, Greg, Josh, Leo and I will be having an open studio in our beautiful 19th-century painting studio in Piazza Donatello. Everyone is welcome. You can pop by during the day to beat the crowds if you like, but let someone know you’re coming. Otherwise we’ll have fine wine and even better art from 18:00 onwards.

Cami Vernissage

Thanks to everyone who came, we had a huge turn-out. Everyone was very complimentary about the work and the space (and the wine), and we even managed to sell some paintings despite the fact you could barely move around inside the gallery. Below are some images from the evening, and the work can be seen on the Cami gallery website.

I wasn’t really drinking 3 glasses of wine at the same time.

Alba and Leo pose for our professional photographer.

Update: Here is a short video of the show.

 

Cami Exhibition

The invitations have been mailed and the catalog should be printed by the end of the week. For my part all the paintings are ready and framed and waiting by the door.

The gallery has asked for 25 paintings, but most of the work I did this year is quite large, and I don’t think they can honestly fit it all. It will be nice to have too much work for a change and just show the best of it.

You can see the work on their website.