Tuesday 1 January 2013

Old endings and new beginnings


I'm trying to conjure an acceptable excuse for not reporting on my life for the past six months, but really there isn't one so I'll just get on with a brief summary and leave the rest to the photos (with captions) that you may like to wade through afterwards (there's rather a lot).

It's a glorious final day of the year here in Florence and I sit somewhat sponge-like in my sun-drenched kitchen soaking up vitamin D and looking out to the magnificent hills (almost lost in aerial perspective) for inspiration and rest for the eyes. School is out for winter break and I've just spent 2 weeks in Germany... a week in Berlin with Susan and a week in Hamburg with Inga and her family for Christmas. We managed to traverse the length of breadth of Berlin visiting christmas markets, palaces, museums and old parts of the berlin wall as well as a concert of Handel's Messiah on the last night. It was particularly special to end the trip with a day of snow which made the -4 degrees all the merrier - although the mulled wine might have been a contributing factor now that I think about it...

Temperatures "soared" across europe after we left Berlin and by my second day in Hamburg the snow was vanishing before our eyes as I lamented the loss of my little dream to have a white christmas. In fact it got up to 12 degrees on Christmas day which felt quite summery after being in temperatures below zero. Snow aside it was like one of my fondly remembered childhood christmases with family, food fest, games and the all important pressie frenzie. We also had a Russian girl staying with us, (Ksusha who translated for us at school this term), and Inga's family folded us in like we'd always been there and weren't speaking a different language. I was so touched by their love and hospitality, I'm still marveling at it.


As for school this term, there were a few changes, one being the addition of the new first year students, making 3 years of students for the first time, since this is only the 3rd year of the school's existence. For that reason we needed more studio space which they managed to acquire upstairs in the same building. It's the smallest of the 3 studios and since us second years are the smallest group, up we went. The most charming aspect of the new studio being it's enormous terrace with mouth-opening view of the Duomo. It's amusing to watch people come onto the terrace for the first time and gasp as they turn and see the giant dome in all its splendour right in front of them.

We had a new drawing teacher this term who was lovely but just not the same as Sergey who gave me a love of drawing and made me feel successful at it. I didn't do so well this term which brought the realisation of how much Sergey was guiding me. Apart from the fact that I've missed a lot of the anatomy instruction (being in the evenings which I have no strength for) and since we are now only doing portraits (and upper body) I feel like I'm losing my way a bit. Next year we will focus on the whole figure (all year) with a heavy emphasis on anatomy. Since my love is still life and interiors I've decided to come home at the end of this academic year and continue my learning in Australia.

Since I made the decision to come home at the end of June, it suddenly seems like time is short so I'm going to make my way through a list of 'to see's that I've had for a while and make the most of being here while I can. Click here to see photos of my 'summer' break in australia and here to see photos of the last few months including my time in Germany. Use the top right link to see latest artworks...

Happy new year and lots of love! Marnie xxxxx
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...