New Website

 I just finished and published my new website  and wanted to share it with you. It has been a long and tedious process but I hope it turned out well.  Would love some input. Now I can get back to the serious part of my life.... painting!!!!

http://contempoaryartist.wix.com/sylvia-b-teri

Valentine's Day

The courtyard of the Bargello  Museum

How really fortunate I am to live in Florence, Italy, where every street and every square takes you through a page of an art history text.  This morning, with a group of friends, I visited the Bargello Museum which houses primarily sculpture . . . and what sculpture!! From medieval masterpieces to works by Donatello, Michelangelo, Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, and Della Robbia just to mention a few.

We are having a mild winter and today, I'm sure, as a St.Valentine Day gift, the sun is shining and the temps were very mild considering that we are in the month of February. This was a valentine from me . . to me!! (and to you!).

Amazing staircase in the courtyard

 Unfortunately, no photographs  can be taken inside the museum, only in the courtyard.

The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People) is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum.

The palace was built to house first the Capitano del Popolo and later, in 1261, the 'podestà', the highest magistrate of the Florence City Council. This Palazzo del Podestà, as it was originally called, is the oldest public building in Florence.
 

note the coat of arms on the wall

 It was also employed as a prison; executions took place in the Bargello's yard where my pictures were taken until they were abolished by Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1786, but it remained the headquarters of the Florentine police.

Fountain decoration in marble

This museum  is a MUST during your visit in Florence.

Della Robbia glazed terracotta rosone

Various coat of arms on the walls of the courtyard

Preparation of the Canvas

Conversation - oil on canvas - 50x70cm

Measuring Space - oil on canvas -50x70cm

For  these (and most all of my paintings) the canvas was prepared using gesso (plaster of Paris) mixed with  rabbit skin glue, the formula for  preparation used by artists during the Renaissance. I was careful to create areas of thick material to inscribe the geometric forms and the   lines of my figures.

Rabbit skin glue comes in a dry granular form that is dissolved  in hot water. When completely melted the gesso is added slowly, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles  creamy yoghurt. Using a spatula or brush it is then applied to the canvas. This preparation seals the canvas (usually linen) and helps it to "stretch". When dry, it forms a protective coating for the canvas where your painting medium, whether it be oil, acrylic, wax, etc,etc, can be applied easily.

Measuring Space Continues

Figure in Space - oil on canvas - 160x80cm

Another diptych. . .larger. . . geometric forms. . .formulas. . .figure. . .construction of space. . .

A Diptych in Book Form

Measuring Space - A Book  mixed media on canvas - 100x70cm

the cover of my book

I decided to create a book, a sort of manual of measurement, that could be hung in many ways, open, closed, in a corner or moveable on the wall semi-open. The idea is the same: formulas, geometric figures, anatomical forms as well as a figure that is hidden in the colors of space.

Technical Drawings - A Series

Blueprint Figure - gouache on paper - 50x70cm

 
Here the lines and measurements of the technical drawing are clearly visible but I have broken away from my "family" supply of drawings and have made photocopies on paper that have been used as collage on the  canvas. This is the beginning of a series of work on paper with collage.

Using a Street Map

Figures in Space  - gouache on paper - 50x70cm

This photo (taken a "few" years ago during a show) shows two paintings using the  street map of the city of Kyoto as background, and, again, this was an exam of my son's. Unfortunately I don't have a more detailed photo where the lines can be clearly seen, however, it is the movement that each  background drawing proposes, whether it be a street map or the plan for a building, that dictates the position that my figure will take. They are one.