Life Drawing locations, Florence, Italy

drawing: Tom J. Byrne

A lot of people are passionate about life drawing. For those not familiar with the term, it refers to the drawing of a living model, usually nude, under controlled lighting conditions, sometimes as part of a still life composition. Life drawing can be a study, the basis for a painting or if the pose is long enough a painting can be executed.

Below is a short video of the monthly life drawing event at Cafe Giubbe Rosse, in Florence. 

 

At the moment there are a few locations for life drawing in Florence, Italy.
Thanks to the Charles Cecil Academy, the Florence Academy and Santa Croce Arte.
These evening events occur after students of the academies and artists studios have finished their work and the studio spaces are available for non students to draw. The events are open to non professionals, people who are self teaching, graduates of the academies and people with a life long love of drawing the human form. So the range of styles and skills of those who attend varies dramatically but the passion to create is universal.

Art Cult Florence and Firenze Drawing Club organise Burlesque drawing events in the historical Cafe Giubbe Rosse in Piazza Republica. It's a once a month event but it's spectacular. The times and dates change. The cafe space is historical in the sense that it has always been a place for artists to meet and they continue the tradition to this day. For more information check the Art Cult or Firenze Drawing Club facebook pages. Here is a sample of what occurs at the events.

Occasionally there is a daytime or morning drawing event in Florence. These spaces are usually donated by an Art Patron such as Cultural Salon Firenze or an Artist with a studio space that is being unused while they are traveling or exhibiting abroad. 

drawing: Tom J. Byrne

Below are the times, locations and costs of life drawing in Florence. The events are open to artists and enthusiastic amateurs visiting Florence and there is no membership process. No appointment is needed, just turn up. The equipment supplied includes seating, easels, the model and lighting. You provide your own drawing equipment, paper or painting tools. There is no instruction. It’s important to be very quiet when working and the sessions are usually between two and three hours long with short breaks every 25 minutes. In the middle of the session there is a long pose and this is traditionally when people pay for their participation. It’s okay to leave an additional tip for the model in a separate tip box.

Drawing by Tom J. Byrne

Locations:

The Charles Cecil Academy.
Address: BORGO SAN FREDIANO, 68. 50124 FIRENZE, ITALIA.
Time and day: Every Tuesday, 7.15pm - 9pm
Cost: €5
Easels and seating available.
Note: The street numbers on Borgo San Frediano can be confusing for visitors as there are two sets. One set are in red, these are commercial address’s and the remainder are in dark blue, these are domestic address’s. Charles Cecils is dark blue. Google maps will miss direct you if you search for the address, so enter no.140 to arrive close to the correct door. When you arrive, the entrance leads directly to a long narrow stairs. At the top of the stairs turn left and the drawing studio is on the left. Arrive in plenty of time to allow yourself to get set up with seating or easel so as not to disturb the group. The poses are determined by the administrator of the academy.


The Florence Academy
Address: Via delle Casine 21/R 50122 Florence Italy
Time and day: Every Thursday, 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Cost: €2 for a half session. €4 for the full session.
Easels and seating available.
Again the street numbers are broken into red and dark blue. The studio number is in red and the entrance is a double door at ground floor level. It is generally closed so you ring the bell to gain access. Don’t arrive too early but if you are late it’s okay as the hour of 5.30 may not suit everyones work hours. Please be quiet during the drawing session. The poses are determined by the administrator.

Cultural Salon Firenze may be providing a morning or afternoon studio drawing area in the center of the city. Times and days will be added here as they occur.

Santa Croce Arte is a private Artists studio in the heart of Florence, where you will receive a warm welcome from Claudia and Gianni. It's a very large studio with many rooms. Twice a month they open their doors in the evenings and welcome guests to draw with them. It's late and very often it finishes by not finishing and people continue to chat until the wee hours over a glass of wine. The pattern of dates changes each month to accommodate the working plans of the studio. To verify the hours and dates check their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/santacroce.arte
As a rule, there is a sketch night twice a month on Thursday with live model in the historical Piazza of Santa Croce.

Address: 19, Piazza Santa Croce, 1st floor. Door bell, press ACSIT.
Time: Confirm on Facebook.
Bring your drawing material.
Seating provided. No easels.
Cost: €10
Life Drawing is a way of learning anatomy, testing your capacity to accurately draw and dare I say, it’s a spiritual experience for the artist and the model.

Artists Residencies in Italy

Italy is a very mysterious and beautiful place which everyone dreams of exploring, to experience the great food, the history and the art of this Latin culture.

Many artists and art students see it as a place of pilgrimage. Indeed it used to be a place of religious pilgrimage and it's still possible to walk through Italy, all the way from Canterbury to Jerusalem in the Holy Land.

While in Florence you are free to examine the great works of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Lippi and so many other great artists upon whose shoulders artists aspire to stand.

Artists residencies exist in Italy and it was surprising to discover that there are so many. They range from the very basic, almost monastic to the extremely luxurious. I'll describe a couple here, both of which recur annually.

The Relais Borgo Santo Pietro residency is the most luxurious I’ve experienced. Situated 35km from the town of Siena and very isolated from everything, it rests atop a hill and is surrounded by rolling farmland with just one small village nearby. Many guests arrive by helicopter and extremely luxurious vehicles, normally rare in Italy, litter the car park. It’s luxurious edge is softened by the numbers of creative people who visit and stay at the Borgo. Indeed although it’s design is opulent it
feels like a small village clustering around a large villa. This in turn is surrounded by miles of organic farmland. All owned and maintained by the same family. The hotel itself is small but in time I imagine the small cottages which guests stay in, will spread out into the vineyards and among the fields of wheat.

Not far from the main hotel, in an area unpopulated by anything other than a lilly pond and a solidly built foot bridge (reminiscent of Monets Giverny) there is a small gazebo framed by a mature weeping willow. This is the artists studio. Inspiring and in a quiet isolated place with only the sound of ducks and birds to interfere with the creative process, it’s a place of refuge for guests and artists alike who come here seeking inspiration and instruction in art.

Each month there is a new resident artist who remains in the Borgo, painting, sculpting, performing or writing. Artists have only a couple of obligations to fulfill, to exhibit their art in the hotel and to give an introduction to their art, to any guest who requests it.

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The next is a magnificent residency near Rome. It’s a bit of a marathon in many ways because during the 4 days, there are hundreds of other artists who also paint but are not resident. Resident artists are given accommodation, fed, partied and shown around the town. They are generally toasted as heroes while they are there. It’s a very warm welcome in a very historical town which oozes history and more than a pinch of mystery. The town is Subiaco, in the region on Lazio. Also known as the city of emperors and saints is located 75km from Rome. It was here that Nero built his summer palace and here that Saint Benedict founded his order. The spectacular monastery is unlike any you will have seen before. Neros palace did not fare as well over the centuries but the remains of the palace can be found near the monastery.

Although part of Rome, the route is a long one through winding hills. Artists usually travel by rented car or public transport. The 2 hour journey passes through beautiful countryside and is dotted with interesting villages atop plateaus. If you decide to explore en route it might take you considerably longer to get there but it would be worth it.

This really is a working residency. You paint every day and it lasts for four days. Usually they give you a location to work in and request that you focus on a subject or topic and there will be other artists there too. International artists are encouraged to take part and work in media ranging from watercolors to ink, oil and drawing. At the end of the event there is a party and award ceremony in the Abbey of Saint Scholastica where the order and sponsors, judge the art works submitted. Prizes are substantial and I’m the happy recipient of two awards.

If you decide to remain after the event you will find yourself in Mount Simbruini Natural Park, the largest protected area in Lazio and one of the largest Italian Natural Parks. I’ll post more information as we move through the winter on different art events which painters can take part in while visiting Italy.

I hope this gives you a taste of what you have to look forward to.

To sharpen your artistic skills you can reserve a place with the Florence Studio to study plein air watercolor or oil painting this Spring.

Tom J. Byrne will guide you through traditional methods of painting and new methods of composing and drawing. 

 

The list of workshops are here.

To contact The Florence Studio.
Email: info@theflorencestudio.com
Phone: +39 3891570276

Address: Borgo SS. Apostioli, 18

Workshops in Florence Italy this Spring.

Here are a selection of workshops for you to enjoy this Spring in Florence Italy. There's something for everyone, from oils to watercolor and urban sketching. The Florence Studio is centrally located, near the Duomo and is run by graduates of the Classical Art Academies here in Florence.
The emphasis is on a good learning experience rather than a purely academic one. We want you to want to paint and so it's not just about technique.

To contact The Florence Studio
Email: info@theflorencestudio.com
Phone: +39 3891570276

Address: Borgo SS. Apostioli, 18

Simply click, to enlarge the images below

A simple way to improve your oil brushes

This simple method conditions you oil painting brushes and really makes a great difference to the way the paint flows. They also become more responsive, subtle, springy and are easier to clean.

Just follow the directions in the video below and the next time you use them, you'll see the difference.

Thanks to Maria Levigne.

Workshop in Tuscany June 3 - 10th

Improve your paintings while enjoying your vacation in Italy.

Bring the two together in an all inclusive painting workshop in Tuscany, Italy. 

Discover how to paint a plein air in just 20 minutes.

Italy has always been the first choice location for artists who flock here from all over the world to experience the light, friendly people, good food and verdant Italian countryside. 

Tom J. Byrne will be demonstrating painting techniques to both beginners and more established plein air painters, using oils and watercolor this June 3rd - 10th in the beautifully converted Watermill at Posara along the river Rosaro. It offers very comfortable accommodation with a great chef, comfortable quarters and good company.

Painters will visit local beauty spots to explore painting opportunities with their easels and demonstrations will take place both in the villa and on site. From very quick study methods to more elaborate painting techniques. We will focus on composition. 20 minute painting studies in both oil and watercolor. Best practice in laying in a plein air painting. Under painting for plein air and alla prima in oil. How to use watercolor in wet on wet and color layers.

For more information visit the Watermill

http://watermill.net/painting-holidays/painting-holidays-tutor-tom-j-byrne17.php

Sketching while the winds howl and rains fall

While some hardy souls are out painting in the high winds, cold rain and flying sleet others are nesting down with their books, pencils, sketchpads and inks.

Winter is a great time to doodle and doodling shouldn't ever be taken for granted. It's a wonderful way to limber up and refresh those creative juices.

Here are a couple of studies from this week, which has been windy and wet here in Tuscany.

A series of imaginary portrait sketches in pencil and another is a study of an orchid which I've been house sitting while her owner is away.

Painting in the crowded streets of Florence

Painting requires a lot of concentration and a certain amount of zen to do well.

So pleinairing among crowds in a busy square goes against the grain for most artists but it's a great exercise and can sometimes be necessary.

I recently joined a couple of other artists doing just that in Florence. We started easy, in the relative quiet of the Boboli gardens at the Isolotto fountain, which features in Dan Browns book, Inferno. It's presence in the novel attracted people who might otherwise not have known of it. The weather was tempestuous with thunder and some light rain but it mostly held off. We discussed the light and established the best view for the subject and began painting.

'The Ocean' fountain by Tom J. Byrne

Visitors to the garden were polite and those few who spoke to us were genuinely interested.

Niklas Elgmo with his completed art.

It was an enjoyable day. We were successful in our goals and worked with relatively little distraction.







The next location was Piazza della Signoria, which is a very different environment where you are challenged not just by the fast moving light but by the enormous crowds. The light appears to move faster because you are basically inside a sundial whose shadows are constantly racing. Statues which are brilliantly lit one moment can be obscured within a few minutes and brightly lit spaces can quickly fill with shadow from a pivoting tower or giant statue.


Foolishly, without planning and calculating the movement of the sun, I began a painting of statues in the Loggia. Although beautifully lit when I began, the shadows slowly crept over the forms and all the light was gone before I had completed the drawing. I also allowed myself to become intoxicated by the drawing rather than think strategically about what it was I needed to do, so the drawing took longer and was more detailed than necessary. By the time I was ready to paint, the shady area in which I had placed myself was flooded with so much light that the canvas was blinding. So my subject was suddenly obscured by shadow and my canvas obscured by light. I had to abandon that painting.

Timothy Atkins capturing a street scene.

Three of us returned the following day and set up our easels. I set up at the mouth of what seemed to be a quiet and unnoticed laneway to the left of the Loggia. Here I prepared to paint the statue of Neptune and the surrounding Piazza. This time I was careful with my light planning and composition.

Working quickly I laid in the shadows, keeping the details to a minimum. There were hoards of people everywhere but my little space was relatively quiet or so I thought.

Niklas Elgmo tackling the shadows.

Every half hour or so a tour guide wishing to evade the other crowds would bring their group through the alleyway and it was necessary to either move the easel or hope that no one would trip over one of the legs.









There is definitely a difference between a painting done in relative peace and harmony and one done in the more crowded public space


Mastering the art of finding an island of quiet within the milling crowds  is the goal. There is always one somewhere.

Piazza Della Signora. Neptune in oils by Tom J. Byrne.

Strategies in Watercolor Painting: A building in the Tuscsan landscape

When you prepare to make a watercolor painting it really helps if you use certain strategies.
Particularly if you have a landscape with a building in it.

Most people would focus on the building first and then paint vegetation around it. That's the direct opposite to what you should do.

In this video you can see how to prepare for a painting in watercolor using an easel and how using vegetation to frame your architectural elements helps enormously when it comes to choosing the values for the buildings.

https://youtu.be/i6qAX9XRk6o

Painting San Niccolo along the Arno - Step by step en Plein Air.

Painting by Tom J. Byrne

Oil on canvas
12 x 16 inches / 30 x 40 cm
Location: Florence, Italy
http://www.tjbyrne.com

Introduction: 

The scene of the San Niccolo tower and the reflected morning light in the Arno is a popular one among artists and students of art, living in Florence. It pops out of the opposite riverbanks trees and is complimented by the remains of a mill at the weir opposite. The calmness in the water created by the weir creates beautiful reflections in the early morning and is best from 9am onwards. A civilized hour for a working artist to begin a painting.

The tower is illuminated while the trees are mostly in shadow and the waters reflections are like a slow moving ripple and are easily captured if the artist can work quickly and reduce them to their essence.

The first thing is to consider the changes in light which each day brings to the scene. Get involved by looking at the intensity of the light, clarity of sky, and strength of shadows. Look for colors in the darks but don’t try to reproduce them. Just be aware of them so that there is a tendency towards the colors in your darks. A hint of red or purple in the shadows can be your guide to the color tendency of the whole scene. Imagine how the scene is going to change by considering the position and direction of the moving sun. Try to animate that in your mind before you begin painting so that you can anticipate changes that are coming.

The painting process isn’t only about recording what’s in front of you. It’s about your response to it and if it doesn’t engage your imagination then the scene will be dull and uninteresting. When an artist feels that they have a connection they don’t worry so much about the details. They simply get into them as a process of painting. Having said that, experience and lots of painting practice help to get past the worry about ‘how’ to capture something that seems very complex and demanding.

So by way of ‘experience’ here are the steps I took in painting this scene.

Process:

1.

Consider the scene here and look at it as mostly shadows with clumps of light sticking out. The camera can’t capture the movement of the light or the ever changing reflections in the water, nor the light in the shadows which the naked eye can see.

My first step is to mark in the position of the shadows on the canvas which in this case I’ve given a toned ground of pinkish red as the season is beginning to move into autumn. I am using a burnt umber and cad red to paint in the shadows position and will supplement this with other colors later. I don't do a charcoal drawing. Just marks with the brush and erase with another brush loaded with some medium.

The lightest lights are added in the sky and the waters reflections. So with the shadow marked in and the lightest lights the largest blocks of light and dark are indicated, which helps to put the other values in context.

Then I block in the main colors which will influence the impression of the painting. Not worrying about details I focus on the the fall and turn of light and get in at least 3 bands of values in each large form. From the lightest to the middle to the darkest to give a sense of the turn of light on the trees, for instance. These are my notes and help with predicting the position of the light a little ahead of time.

I won’t discuss the composition as I’ve described that in other demonstrations. Although there isn’t a lot of perspective in this painting I’m making the far banks colors a little subdued so that we have a sense of aerial distance.

It’s important to note the intensity and position of the shadows in the main architectural elements at this point. They draw the eye in and will be important later. So make them a little more intense than you might think is wise.

2.

 

In the sky I’ve used a combination of cobalt, ultra marine, and a tiny bit of red mixed with white to make a greyish blue which moves from darker to lighter at the treeline. I like texture in the sky so am using a white from which I’ve removed a lot of the medium. I’ve painted in a lot of the foreground grass and it’s shadows. In the water I’ve very quickly describing the reflections at the edge of the far bank, the main lights reflected and the sense of movement.

So now you have the sky, the far bank which is mostly shadow, the water and the foreground. 4 bands of value intensity. This is done as quickly as possible without much detail. It’s all creates a frame for the tower and other architectural elements. If I were to paint in the architecture first, the chances are high that I would obsess on the details and not paint the shadows in the context of the nature surrounding it.

3.

The lights on the edges of the water on the far riverbank are important. They always exist when water meets shadow but don’t always have the same value.

4.

Now that the architecture is framed and the surrounding are in place I can paint the buildings. I have my shadows so only the main light planes remain. On the main face of the tower receiving the early morning light, the fall of light should be considered. Lighter at the top, darker as it descends. In this case I didn’t do that so the face looks a little flat. 

However the dark drawing peeks through at the edges which makes this acceptable. I didn’t paint a lot of detail in the shadows on the face of the tower. They are just suggested. Intense shadow moving to lighter. 3 bands of color value are used. The value in the shadow of the tower is painted over the red, which is allowed to show through. In the weir arches and butress’ to the right of the tower we see the fall of light and turn of light as the values go from high to low. I’ve increased the chroma here using the appropriate colors in white to compliment the shadows. If you look into the shadows of the trees you will see a light purple popping out of the dark shadow. This note of color describes the reflected light coming off the water. See the trees on the right over the weir. Under the line of riverbank trees you’ll see that I’ve just dragged a green shadow value over the dark red that was used to describe the position of the shadows under the trees.

5.

You can see here that the movement of the water is created by simply setting colors down beside each other in abstract forms. There is no attempt to describe ripples. The lights are a variety of intensities and red shows through where it is appropriate. It’s mostly the red which I painted to describe the shadows that we are seeing here. As the eye travels further across the water the more abstract the forms.

Now that the image context is in place and the architectural values are done I can add some more form and intensity to the shadows and lights. The focus is on values now. Making the forms which have already been described come alive without obsessing over details. If this were a studio painting, this would be called the second painting stage. You can see from the brushstrokes that I’m moving very quickly with the brush and respecting the position of the light without focusing too much on individual elements such as leaves except in the foreground tree which is slightly helps to emphasize the perspective.

In this image you get a better sense of the water and again can see that the red underpainting is peeking through, helping to create the sense of ripples and reflected shadow. Red and green are complimentary colors and one emphasizes the other so the shadows under the trees sing. By adding lights in the most eye catching forms on the far bank I lift the shadows.

6.

This side by side view of the painting and a photo gives a lot of information about the paintings progress. The sharp eyed will notice the photo is taken later in the process because the shadows are longer (sun is higher in the sky). This is why painting in the shadows first is very important. It unifies the painting before you begin to add color. I haven’t labored over detail. Just enjoyed the process of quickly observing everything I’m seeing and recording the vibrancy of light.

The painting gives the impression of realism but doesn’t attempt to record every line or brick and aerial perspective is very strong right here because I wanted to create the sense of trees falling away in the distance behind the weir using lighter values.

Painting © Tom J. Byrne 2016.

Dear Tuscany Pleinair - Congratulations to Pat Mahony Getz

Our congratulations go out to Pat Mahony Getz for her successful sale of paintings from the Tuscan Landscape. Pat took part in last Septembers Plein Air event in Florence Itay and these scenes were done on the spot in the hills of Florence. 

"Dear Tuscany Pleinair, I am coming up on almost a year since I had the amazing opportunity to paint with all of you in Tuscany. I want to thank you for the experience. Last night I was part of a large landscape show in Davis, CA. I had one wall devoted to eleven small paintings of Tuscany. Many of the paintings I did during the week. Some were more elaborate that I either completed or started from scratch based on studies or sketches. The huge surprise was that when I walked in for the opening reception every one of my paintings had sold. I have not had something like that happen since the the mid-80's. Thank you for allowing this to happen. I will attach two images from the first day's workshop where we were experimenting with value. I tore the images from my notebook, framed them and voila!"

 

Sargents 'In the Luxembourg Gardens'

Dimensions:
25 7/8 x 36 3/8 inches (65.7 x 92.4 cm) Framed: 38 × 48 3/4 × 4 inches (96.5 × 123.8 × 10.2 cm)

Artist: John Singer Sargent:
Title: In the Luxembourg Gardens.
Date: 1879
Though not on public view, it is stored in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Examining the works of great artists and analyzing them help when considering my own compositions and the impact which paintings make. The conclusions I come to are my own.

This outdoor oil painting is set at dusk in the Luxembourg gardens, Paris, and was painted by John Singer Sargent. It appears to be a very simple image, perhaps painted just for the sake of painting but a closer examination suggests something far more complex. Perhaps this was a visual experiment by Sargent. The painting is neither simple nor detailed and does some amazing things with focus.

At first glance we have the impression of crowds and a romantic couple walking together under the setting sun.

Sargent gives us the impression of scattered blurry groups of people around the park and a couple walking together silhouetted against a line of trees and architectural furniture. The ambiance is very calm and relaxed with the setting sun blending into the grayish sky. It seems a very simple scene. Sargent hasn’t focused on detailing the foliage or even the furniture scattered around the park. His brush suggests more than describes the background and the crowds. These people may be simple silhouetted values but they are masterfully done. Illusion is the most appropriate description of this painting.  

However when we examine the painting closely we see something interesting. Our attention is cleverly focused onto the couple using color values, detail and definition. Their faces are framed by the dark suit of the man and the light violet dress of the woman as they come forward from the mid value of the background and stand out from the light value of the gravel walkway.

The rest of the scene is under the light of dusk with the sun and it’s golden reflections in the pond. The color value of the sun and the sky are the same despite the impression of luminosity so it doesn’t drag our attention away from the central element, the face of the man.





There is a musical rhythm in the pattern of lights and reds which dance around the mid value background forms. The positioning of the sun and it’s reflections in the pond correspond to the luminous band of the mans straw hat and the golden reflection from the woman’s bonnet in a way which brings the main characters forms even more forward. The eye moves across and down and back across the painting, never resting long on any one thing, as long as the viewer is not too close to the painting.

Focusing our attention:
Sargent put a lot of detail into the couple and particularly into the gentleman. As the eye travels across the painting the lack of real detail allows our eyes to wander without distraction until we arrive at the couples faces. Here our attention becomes fixed and the eye stops. Suddenly there is some subtle detail and it is as though the entire painting conspired to bring us there.

The woman’s face is half obscured by the material keeping her hat in place and the shadow of her hair. We don't see her eyes. The red flash of her fan against the dark of her companions suit further frames our attention.

Above it, the tip of the mans cigarette glows in the dark and draws us in. It even has a yellow point in the center. His brightly lit collar ends the flow of  movement and we bounce back to the details of the face. We can see his eyes and the brows but even as we get a grip on who this person might be, our focus begins to fade as everything begins to blur once again.

As we move beyond the well lit collar, his companions yellow bonnet, tied in place by a light material, begins to go out of focus and there is only a hint of rosy cheeks and a suggestion of mouth. This change of focus radiates in all directions from the central element of the mans face. Even as we move from his collar to his hand and from there to the feet there is a definite transition to vaguer forms with softer edging.


 The womans hand on her dress is the next most defined element with beautiful transitions between light and dark planes but again when we reach her feet, they are simply vague and suggested. It's masterfully done.
 

This appears to be a very simple, attractive painting from a distance but as we look closer, much more is revealed and a great deal of artistic alchemy is expressed. Was this an experiment of Sargents to control the viewers experience. As though telling a story about this couple or to make us wonder about the young man and his future. So much around them is out of focus, yet they glow and twinkle in the scene. Perhaps Sargent was thinking that the main characters light was about to be obscured just as the sun glows in the sky on it’s way to setting.

1879 was the date of the Anglo - Zulu war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zulu_War