fine art photography for europhiles

Our home is a collection of old and new. When returning to the states after living in Europe, we shipped many of our favorite things that held sentimental value from our time spent there. Our yellow modern Italian couches and other furniture pieces, dishes, artwork such as framed antique maps, books, and, naturally, our Alessi favorites, as I describe in this past post.

But what had become a challenge was an update to our artwork. Over our modern Italian couches and near several framed black and white photographs, hung a fresco-like painting of Siena on canvas purchased in Italy. It held sentimental value but felt old-fashioned. In fact, much of today’s European and Italian design is more modern than those Americans promoting Tuscan kitchens would like to believe. Our Northern Italian friends have the latest in glass tile, and favor clean lines, modern art and appliances over a traditional look. While we have many traditional items in our home such as a large french-style kitchen pine table, it became clear it was time to update this piece of art on the wall. But how? How does a Europhile – lover of history and things old - accomplish this?

I found my solution last month, while perusing the shelves at our local bookstore downtown for Christmas presents. Above the books, I discovered artistic photographs displayed around the room. The art show was featuring the work of Northern California photographer Dee Conway.

“Room in the Louvre” Dee Conway

Several sepia-colored prints from photographs featuring European  architecture that appeared to be near or around Paris caught my attention. (The photos are archival prints on watercolor paper from a film negative).

Dee Conway

Dee Conway

One photograph in particular, shot wide angle by Conway from a circular window looking out onto the Louvre’s back courtyard produces a peaceful effect with its shadows, texture and clouds.  Quite large and framed in light wood, the photograph – for me – feels so familiar and represents why views like these in Europe never fail to catch my eye and keep me gazing; they fill my soul and spirit when I’m there. I never tire of it.

“The Louvre”, Dee Conway

One of her framed photographs has taken the place of the Siena fresco and, with the addition of a few Missoni-style, brightly-striped couch pillows, our room has been updated with the most perfect effect.

All photos by permission of Dee Conway photography at http://deeconway.com/

top 3 new experiences this spring in Italy

On our trip back to Italy last month, we walked a lot down memory lane – visiting our old apartments, old jobs, old friends, favorite beaches, buildings, bars and restaurants. The children were gracious, my oldest posing in front of the hospital she was born and standing on the lungolago for a picture where I strolled her endlessly years ago.

But what was equally enjoyable was the creation of new memories with our children through new experiences in an old country with endless things to discover.

Three of our favorite new Italian finds this Spring include:

Visiting the Madame Fisscher exhibit at Palazzo Grassi, Venice (through July 15, 2012)

Even if you are not a contemporary art fan or have had enough of Venice (but is that possible in the city that never gets old?), it may be worth visiting this exhibit if only to  enter the breathtaking Palazzo Grassi for the first time.

From the brochure, “The exhibit offers a journey through Urs Fischer’s artistic career from the nineties to today.  His work, characterized by humor, penchant for paradox and virtuosity of execution, employes simultaneously an extraordinary diversity of media and materials.  It calls into question the history of art and sculpture, our relationship to the body, the notion of time and the status of the object.”  Our favorites include “Untitled”,  two men in candle wax allowing visitors to witness the transformation as the flame burns (the head representing Fischer himself had fallen into his hands when we were there) and the idea of the importance of all processes of transformation, the body’s endurance and duration of artwork; Jeff Koons monumental pink “Balloon Dog” (which is used to contrast a nearby Fischer work);  “A Light Sigh is the Sound of my Life”,  an enormous sphere, slowly rotating on itself made of different materials (what looked like skin and hair). My daughter also gave a thumbs up to the “floating” cigarette box  hung by a thin wire from the ceiling while the naked professional model/woman in the ”Necrophonia” room was a surprise.

Eating at GustaPizza, Florence

Near Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence I ate some of the best pizza I’ve had in central and northern Italy. Our friend who lives in the area introduced it to us. Delicious and affordable,  my pizza came with rucola and grana (above) while the kids had Margherita. If you are traveling in the area this summer, this casual restaurant is not to miss.

Renting a motorboat, Lago di Garda

All the years we lived on the lake, while we enjoyed its stunning water by ferry-boat and swimming, it’s hard to believe we never rented a boat. On the lungolago in our old village of Toscolano Maderno, you can rent a motor boat for an hour for 75 euros. While a splurge for us, the kids agree it was one of the best activities we chose to do on the trip. The views of the villas and castles and mountains lining the coast are best experienced by boat. The boats go fast enough to feel the thrill of bumping over small waves and wind through the hair.

a journey with edgar payne

Just in time, we visited today an excellent exhibition of a collection of paintings by California landscape artist Edgar Payne (1883 – 1947) at a nearby jewel,  The Crocker Art Museum.

The Crocker recently finished a renovation that includes this building addition that houses early California and modern art, including glass, ceramic and sculptures. There is a separate floor dedicated to Oceanic and African art.

On the 3rd floor past this glass sculpture (I believe it is called Ruby Spirits), you will find the exhibit, Edward Payne: The Scenic Journey” (Feb. 11 – May 6, 2012) and this is precisely what I came for. It includes paintings featuring Payne’s favorite subjects in nature like the California Sierra Nevada Mountains, the desert Southwest, and Europe including the Alps, Swiss lakes and villages, and boat and harbors in Brittany and Venice.

Sunset, Canyon de Chelly, oil on canvas

Payne is called ”one of the most gifted of California’s early plein-air artists”. Drifting in and out of the galleries, it’s undeniable that his free and visible brushstrokes in the impressionist style stand out but the subject is not what one considers  “impressionist.” Rather than a lady’s delicate bonnet or a Monet waterlily, his subjects are rugged, grand scenes, like Southwest Canyons, Sierra mountains, the Alps including Mont Blanc, Swiss villages and pristine lakes which he painted with a perfect balance of color, shadow and natural light. Interestingly, I read that he preferred painting the Sierra Nevada mountains because they offered more colors such as red and green as opposed to the  characteristic uniform slate gray of the Alps.

Naturally, I lingered the longest in the gallery featuring paintings of traditional boats and harbors in France and Italy.  I read that he only visited Europe twice but that he brought back with him photos to finish many of his works.

Breton Tuna Boats, Concarneau, France (1924) is one of my favorite paintings from the exhibit. The longer you view it, the bigger the sensation of waves and boats bringing you in and out of the painting. You can almost hear the water. The chalk-like colors he used are soothing, beautiful and vibrant – turquoise blue, terracotta orange and whites.

Edgar Payne traveled the world – the Southern and Central California coast, the Sierra, the Swiss Alps, the harbors and waterways of France and Italy, and the desert Southwest - to find magnificent landscapes to paint. For anyone who loves to travel and is drawn to natural beauty, these paintings by Edgar Payne will take you there and make you appreciate all that cameras still cannot do.

The Crocker Art Museum’s new addition of modern and California art couldn’t be a better place to enjoy it.

Payne Image credits: Traditional Fine Arts Organization

3 reasons paris is on my mind

Lately things Parisian have been popping up around me. Three in particular. Woody Allen’s new movie “Midnight in Paris” (opening at my local theatre next weekend!), a travel memoir I just picked up set in Paris called Almost French, and an exciting new exhibit I can’t wait to see this summer at the De Young Museum in San Francisco called Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris – made possible only because this Paris museum is temporary closed for renovation.

1. Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris  (photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics)opens next weekend at our local theatre and I haven’t been this excited about a movie since…I can’t remember? Thanks to re-subscribing to Netflix, I’ve become re-acquainted with the lovely, witty films of Woody Allen (Manhattan and Celebrity) and I’m thrilled to see what the latest from him brings. The reviews have been great and the ingredients – 1920′s golden, intellectual era, famous literary icons, artists –  sound almost too perfect for those who love expat life and any opportunity to be nostalgic about a romanticized past.

2. I received a copy of Almost French (Sarah Turnbull) – set in Paris –  for my birthday that I just started reading. Another twist to a travel memoir (adventure turns to love, foreigner ends up living in Paris, navigating the highs and lows of life there).  Sound familiar? Formulaic to the bone but I just don’t tire.

3. My very-knowledgeable-about-art-friend alerted me to a new Picasso exhibit opening this summer at the De Young in San Francisco. The collection comes on loan from the Musee National Picasso Paris  (a favorite museum of ours currently closed for renovation, rival only to the beautiful Museo Picasso de Barcelona, key to understanding Picasso’s formative years). I cannot wait to  see this exhibit at the De Young. When my husband and I were last in Paris  – we took the fast train from our home in Italy and met up with friends from Luxembourg - we spent a good part of a day at the Musee National Picasso taking in its wonderful collection of paintings and bronzes from a range of periods of his life. After seeing the painting, Enfant jouant avec un camion (1953) (ABOVE), we purchased a copied print of it that we framed and now hangs in our child’s room.  The exhibit will include masterpieces from his blue period (LOVE), rose period, expressionist studies, and include paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. I do hope Enfant jouant is included so we can see it live again!

Three wonderful ways to experience a piece of Paris this summer.  Wherever you may be.