Back to Oz

It may take a bit to get used to everyone speaking english and which side the passenger sits in the car, the lack of architectural wonders and the long distances between Things of Interest, but it's taken no time at all to readjust to the fresh air, eucalyptus trees full of lorikeets and kookaburras and the warm sunny winter days...

I'm back!! I know I've settled in somewhere when I've organised myself and surrounds enough to get painting. Relief! I've been up the road to do a quick plein air study (to warm up the brushes) and am currently working on an idea for this year's Talls exhibition at the gallery in Canowindra (near Orange NSW). All submissions are to be painted on a 24x12' canvas ordered from the gallery so they are all the same format. It will be an interesting exhibition and I'm looking forward to starting my painting when the canvas arrives...

So to fill you in on my final months in Italy... summer was very slow coming to Florence this year (and the rest of Europe by all accounts) so I despaired of having any warm weather before heading back for my fourth winter in a row (because of hemispheric changes). But after packing up my life, shipping off a box of my choicest items and farewelling the dear friends I have made, I headed south with the lovely Susan and her good friend Lillian (who's now my good friend too) and spent a week in the Bay of Naples soaking up the sun and enjoying a full week of splendid south Italian summer weather.

We rented an apartment in Vico Equense from where we could easily visit Naples, Pompei, Sorrento, Capri and Positano on the Amalfi Coast. Theoretically at least. In practice we found that random trains were cancelled because of unpaid workers striking (meaning over an hour waiting for the train at times) and although we had a marvellous view from our apartment, it came at the cost of lugging ourselves up a mean hill to get home every day... brilliant for the thighs no doubt but a bit of a strain after a hard day being a Tourist. No sympathy from an 80 year old local who'd lived there all her life and whose muscles were 'accustomed' to the hill!!

The highlights for me were definitely Pompei and Positano. Pompei was an endlessly fascinating step back in time by nearly 2000 years. We had an informative and entertaining guide called Fabio who added Italian vowels to the ending of eacha anda everya worda. He pointed out tiny details and nuances that we never would have noticed or thought to look for, like evidence of donkey parking and groves in cobblestones from the heavy iron wheels of chariots. A bakery where they found carbonised bread pieces and how stepping stones were used to cross the road without soiling one's feet in the general muck created by fountains and sewerage running freely through the streets. How I would love to time travel and see the city in it's day fully functioning and alive with the busyness of every day life.

We reached Positano via bus from Sorrento along the cliff-hanging roads hugging the stunning Amalfi coast. Stunning. The bus driver negotiated the curved and twisty road like one without fear of death and we stuck our noses to the windows like trusting little tourists and tried to capture some of the beauty on our snappy cameras in order to take it home with us. The bus stopped at the top of the town and the amble down the steep road to the centre was punctuated with the delight of the views on the left side and the pleasure of quaint little shops on the right. The streets were clean and colourful, the water clear turquoise, and the locals bright and friendly. It's hard to imagine a more beautiful place. No wonder it's a popular destination for weddings, honeymoons and beachside holidays. After our slow stroll down to sea level we stopped for a bite to eat and soaked up the carefree resort vibe and collectively marvelled at it all. We each managed to pick up a ceramic treasure or two on our amble back up the hill and the afternoon light over the cliffs and sea was something I've filed away in the 'best memories' section of my brain since the camera wasn't capable of doing it justice.

You can see pics and read a bit more commentary from our trip here

So my time in Italy is finished for now but my budding artist's journey is barely begun and I plan to keep a more regular account of my painting progress here so do stay tuned if you'd like to see what I'm getting on with. Thanks for reading and sharing this journey with me, more soon!

PS. I went to the NSW art gallery the other day and as always lingered over the Australian Impressionist section... there is an Arthur Streeton landscape there that I love called 'Still glides the stream and shall forever glide', which is a line from a poem by William Wordsworth:

'After-Thought'
I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,
As being past away.--Vain sympathies!
For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,
I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish;--be it so!
Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.

Cobblestones and kookaburras

Greetings from Florence! The days are getting longer but as yet not exactly hotter. In fact today it is a wet and stormy 15 degrees. (Although I will admit it was a rather warm day when this photo was taken of me and Inga in Greve in Chianti). Non-the-less if the summer weather doesn't fully assert itself soon I'll be enveloped in a seemingly perpetual winter, since I'm returning to the southern hemisphere for good in just over 4 weeks time (four weeks! must be time to start counting the sleeps)...

What have I been up to since my last post?? Well, last term I struggled somewhat to keep up with everything and progressively saw myself falling behind at school. This term I dropped back to part time while I tried to sort out some health problems, which seem to have finally come into the light just of last week (anemia caused by endometriosis)... So it's been perfect going to school just for painting in the mornings with the afternoons off and I also joined the first years to continue on with still life which I'm enjoying immensely. I'm learning much with our new teacher and in the process of all the cuffuffle I've realised I want to focus my energies to still life, interiors and landscapes. I like these the best and since I'm not starting out my painting career at 20 I'm seeing a benefit to becoming really good at some things rather than ok at everything. So for now I'm putting figures and portraits aside and concentrating on what I love doing the most. Life is short!!



Some of the things I've done during the past 5 months that have whipped by since Christmas... I visited one of the oldest pharmacies in the world (opened in 1221); I saw my first river rat along the banks of the Arno after secretly thinking they might be an urban myth... they do exist; I learned to knit! (first project being a hotwater bottle cover, see pics); I moved from my much loved little apartment in Santo Spirito complete with stunning views to the south and right across the road from the Boboli Gardens to a BIG town-house out in the burbs with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, loungeroom, basement AND garden (I sincerely thought I'd miss my little flat but I haven't looked back - goodbye 'I can't turn around without knocking anything over', hello 'I'm getting my morning walk just going to the kitchen for breakfast') - I'm minding the house of some aussie friends while they are on sabbatical in Australia for 5 months; I experienced the yearly easter event of the 'burning of the cart' which was just as exciting and spectacular as the first time I went; I found out that Italian doctors are Most Excellent and Extremely Nice and I learned that it's a great thing to have travel insurance; I did some gardening (weeding mainly but also mowing - if you can call cutting the grass by hand with secateurs mowing... I wasn't up to wrestling the whipper snipper into action); I had lots of baths!; I had Inga's mum and dad stay in one of my Spare Rooms while they were in Florence visiting Inga, during which time I joined them on a day trip to Greve in Chianti (heart of Tuscan wine country) as well as (my personal highlight) Carrara where Michelangelo used to get his marble and Viareggio where everyone goes to the beach from Florence in summer; I found a brilliant podcast called Artists Helping Artists which I listen to while I'm working at home or knitting and which is filling my mind with great ideas and possibilities for working as an artist in the future; I had 8 church friends over for a lively and abundant lunch which I had been wanting to do forever but didn't have space in my old place (took me 3 days to recover from the effort though!); I played tourist and joined a tour of the Vasari Corridor with a focus on the art of women in Florence - entirely fascinating with a terrific guide and we each got a book about women artists and the campaign that's happening (thanks to 2 american women) to get all their artworks out of the storage rooms of museums all over Florence...



Being in Italy for 2 and a half years has been amazingly wonderful. I have a feeling I won't fully appreciate all that I've learned or all that I've become until I'm looking back on it from Australia. Living in a place for some time really gives you a chance to let it become a part of you, to take major artistic wonders for granted like a local, to make life long friendships with people from all over the world and just to walk over the same cobblestones as centuries of outstanding artists that have gone before you.

At the same time there are some things that I'm really looking forward to about being back in Australia (aside from family and friends which goes without saying): gum trees, fresh air (Florence air quality is the worst in Italy), lorikeets and kookaburras, the salty sea air and beautiful beaches, my church and being back in my own house again.

I'm presuming this will be my last post until I'm back in oz. I do plan to take up blogging more regularly when I'm back (and hopefully in a more energetic state of health) with the particular focus on what I'm working on painting-wise. So do stay tuned! Thanks for sharing this journey with me. I leave you with some photos here and a lovely quote I found somewhere...

An artist's every thought and all his energy must
be bestowed upon his work, and such time as he has
to spare were best spent among the meadows and
hedgerows, where under clear skies he can breathe
fresh air, which will do him far more good and help
him better in his inspired calling.
Albert Toft

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

End of academic year

The scholastic year is coming to a close here in the northern hemisphere as summer settles in and the tourists arrive in droves. In fact it seems most schools are already out as of this weekend (I happened across a joyfully noisy and chaotic teenage water fight centered around the fountain in Piazza Santo Spirito today which was presumably a needed release of stress after the high school final exams)... At the Russian Academy we have another week to go and are half way through 2 weeks of our anatomy intensive with Aleksy our guest teacher from Russia. We all seem to be rather lead-footed and ready for the holidays. Looking back over the past year I think (I hope) I've learned a lot since I've been with the Russians, although the more I learn the more I realise there is to learn. I'm planning to come back for another year but meanwhile I need a dose of Australia (and just as importantly I need to not be in Florence for the sweaty mosh-pit of August), so I'm heading home for 3 months, leaving the week after next and counting the sleeps til I'll be off the dreaded long-haul flight with my feet planted safely on the land of kangaroos and eucalyptus trees.



Reflecting on leaving Florence for a bit and how much I take for granted now all the object d'arte I see around me every day I decided to make a pictorial account of my daily trip to school. There are the great and obvious architectural feats and sculptures to behold and then there are the small details like door knockers and street lamps and things which could happily belong in a museum, or on a movie set. Click here to see the pics as well as of our final exhibition and a few other things that have been happening. Lots of love! marnie xxxxx

Spring has sprung a leak

Some few weeks back winter gave way to an eager Spring in full swing, with an army of birds gathered from the four corners to herald the arrival, bright green foliage on barren trees and temps soaring to the mid 20's. And so all was well and very cheery... until spring sprung a leak and it's not stopped (hardly) raining for the past 2 weeks (or so)... see photographic evidence:

The moody cloud-filled skies are spectacular, ranging from the cute and fluffy one minute to the dark and furious moments later and The Umbrella (marvelous invention) and/or The Raincoat (for cyclists) have become essential accessories. (The sunsets have been splendid too I must add). I read in the paper recently that there is (or at least was) a drought in Tuscany, with strict restrictions on water usage in the garden (and/or on the terrace) which is a good move since we've barely had a drop from the sky since I arrived in January last year. But with the swollen Arno River and the ongoing forecast for rain I do suspect the drought is at an end. I don't mind the rain so much, it's the return of "il freddo" (the cold) that I mind a lot and the joy of putting away the woolies has been superceded by the pain of dragging them back out again.

Anyhoo, onwards from the weather report... We've just come to the end of a 2 week break from school and as you will observe from the above weather chart, there was a single sunny day in that time (April 17, I remember it well), which was the day Inga and I were able to venture beyond Florence, with any sort of hope of staying dry, and head west young man. West being where the nearest coast be found. Livorno to be specific, which is a port city where goods come and go as well as cruise-ship loads of tourists. All of whom head for Florence where there is a whole lot more to see and do than in Livorno, except if you're feeling sea-air deprived in which case you might consider the trip in reverse, as we did. It's not a historic or in any way beautiful township but with the sun shining the sea-side Terrazza (terrace) is a sight for sore eyes and refreshing to the soul:

We also visited the Civic Museum which I threw into the itinerary for something to do and unfortunately didn't allow enough time (before it closed for a 3 hour siesta) to fully appreciate the wonderful Italian impressionist paintings we found there. After lunch by the Mediterranean Sea, with the salty breeze in our hairs we headed up the hill to Montenero on the funicular railway to admire Livorno from above. As there's not much to Montenero besides it's stunning view of the sea we took a short stroll and then made our way back to the beloved centre of high culture, an hour and a half train ride from the centre of Livorno. Speaking of Florence being beloved, the rising number of tourists has not been in the slightest deterred by the rain (what are umbrellas for?!). It's becoming daily more difficult to ride a bike through the historic centre, even with the earnest trill of a bell to declare the desire for clear passage. From tomorrow my trip to and from school, which in winter takes in the Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Repubblica and the Duomo, will necessarily be in a wide arc around these congested venues.

As for the rest of the break, I managed to do a still life in grisaille (one colour and white) but not a great deal otherwise (owing to the weather), other than some watery walks in the Boboli Gardens, an easter luncheon with Inga and Susan, a movie in English with Susan (Marigold Hotel), lunch and a visit to the Palazzo Pitti with the Reads (an Australian family here for 3 months on long service leave), and the carrying out of possibly the most thorough spring clean an apartment was ever subjected to. It's amazing what can be done if one only has the time.

I was also inspired once again by this hour long documentary by Roger Scruton called Why Beauty Matters...


To see the latest pics please click here. I'll sign off with this quote from the Marigold Hotel: "Everything will be alright in the end, and if it isn't, it's not yet the end".

Constructive drawing and Madrid

The first four weeks back at school after christmas we had a guest teacher from Russia who taught us anatomy and constructive drawing. I did my own anatomy study at home as the anatomy component was at night by which point my energy is all spent. However the constructive drawing course in the morning was great. The aim is to see 'through' the object and so to understand the form from every side. Not easy. I learned heaps including how very much more there is to learn. This is the capital I drew (after much sweat and nearly tears)...

Then we had another week off (the Russians love their holidays) to mark the end of our first term and we start back at school tomorrow which will be the first day of term two. Meanwhile during the week break, to take advantage of the off-season and cheap flights, I made a short visit to Madrid with Susan, a friend of mine from school. She speaks Spanish and is familiar with Madrid which made everything very easy. We stayed in an apartment in the historical centre close to the main museums for a 4 day art extravaganza taking in the Prado, Thyssen, Royal Academy of Art and the Sorolla museum, as well as a day trip to Toledo. Madrid is a beautiful, clean and orderly city (the part we saw at least) which seems to have been plonked in the middle of the desert. I was pretty struck by the dryness of the landscape on the way in from the airport and on our train trip to Toledo. I've been telling everyone that Australia is dry, but it's really only that dry far west and in the desert!

Our 'hood' was a feast of quiet streets lined with quaint shops and cafes. On the first day after dumping our bags at the apartment we started wandering through the back streets towards the main road to find lunch when we came across a macrobiotic restaurant just a few minutes from our apartment. Thrilled! Both of us being very keen on good food, we were extremely pleased by the unexpected discovery and enjoyed a fab lunch. We asked the waitress where we might find a health food shop (for our essential breakfast items) and lo there was one next door.

Susan has a friend in Madrid who she knew worked somewhere around where we were staying. It turns out her office was on the other side of the health food shop! So naturally, we all met at the restaurant again for lunch the next day and we went again the following day. The added bonus to all this being able to use the free wi-fi whenever we passed by the restaurant during our stay. PTL!

The highlight of the trip for me was the house and studio of Sorolla which has been turned into a museum. It took my breath away to enter his studio and see the enormous paintings on the wall, so full of colour and light. I love his work and was captivated to see where he lived and worked and to take in all the objet d'art he collected or commissioned. Even his paint brushes are still there, his old tubes of paint and his great collection of art books. Talk about coveting his studio space, which was in fact 3 huge rooms connected to each other. Oh to have that space!!! And that talent. I was struck by how apparently disorderly his paintings appear until you get some distance back from them, at which point they come together magically and beautifully. Considering the artist has to paint right up at the canvas this is something I have to take more to heart when making my own paintings. To me it really highlights the incredible skill of Sorolla, who (just oh by the way) was evidently paid very well for his hard work and was no starving artist!

Another 'take your breath away' moment for me was visiting the cathedral in Toledo. By now I've seen the inside of a few cathedrals but I don't think any of them compare to the grandeur of this one. I was overwhelmed by the creativity and skill and imagination and resources and sheer man hours that were poured into it all those hundreds of years back. I snapped away on my camera but of course it can't capture the effect of being so tiny in such an awesome space. And that is a job well done when you consider the aim is to have you contemplate the awesomeness of God which is incomparably great compared to the earth, the planets, the entire universe... let alone this 'little' cathedral in a small town in Spain.

I liked the Prado although it's really too big to take it all in in one day. Susan and I split up so we could go at our own pace, and met up for a cuppa and rest half way (like boxers heading to the corner for water and a brow pat between rounds). I ended up swinging by a lot of masterpieces because of overload, a bit like at the Louvre. It was really interesting to see the artists with their easels set up making copies of different works. They gave a fresh view to the original painting which was in every case far superior in colour, subtlety and drawing... It's not as easy as it looks!

The Thyssen museum is a more manageable size, a bit like the Orsay in Paris, and has a great collection of impressionist art which is what I always make a bee-line for (they also had a temporary exhibition of the female impressionist Berthe Morisot). My favourite paintings at the Thyssen were the Sargents, just beautiful. The Royal Academy of art is another great collection of paintings, but the highlight for me was our visit to the basement where they make the gesso casts. Susan is interested in ordering a cast so she used her wonderful Spanish to get us in to see them being made and the collection they have available for purchase. Treat!

The Spanish people were lovely and for both of us it was a great relief to be in a warm apartment for 4 nights and not have to keep rugged up inside. It's really quite cold in Florence at the moment. The past 2 weeks have had top day time temperatures of an average of 2 degrees. It's snowed a bit but only once has it not melted on impact and made some impression of white on the roof tops (see pics)... The trip on the bus out to Pisa airport was pretty special though as it had clearly snowed more out there and the landscape was quite transformed with it's thin blanket of white. You can see latest pics here...

This is a documentary about Russians in Italy and our school was one of the features... It mostly shows the second year students although there's a few moments with some of the first years and also a brief interview with Nadya the director of the school...

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