Press Release for B.I. Exhibition on Friday 27th April 2012:
Arcadia Art Studio ”Beauty Spots in Italy and Great Britain”
This training studio situated in the centre of Casciana Terme in the province of Pisa, just an hour from Florence down the Fi-Pi-Li motorway towards the sea has been operating since 2009. It opened in the springtime with an exhibit of paintings by the tutors, Daphne Stevens, Mick Harris and Sheila Stevens and soon after the enrolments began as local people who had an interest in learning how to paint or to improve and perfect their own studio work joined up. Throughout the last three years the same group of about 20 artists have pursued their weekly studies at the studio and several times taken their paints and easels out into the Tuscan countryside to paint “en plein air”. For two years running the group has done an exhibition at the annual painting competition “via dell’Arco” in Casciana Terme and sold many of the original work to local residents as well as tourists visiting the beautiful Valdera.
During the winter months there have been models to draw from life using charcoal and pencil and we have worked on copies of master paintings to learn how to see through the artist’s eyes; so we have studied and reproduced Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Van Gogh, De Nittis, Lomi, Lori, Cappagli, Condor, Widgery, Sickert, Millais, Lear, Turner, Sandby, Bonington, Stubbs, Raphael, Martini, etc
There have been several workshops given by guest artists including mural decoration by Albert Raineri, tile painting by Marina Beschin, icon painting by Cinzia Pietroni, watercolour techniques by Carol Moreton and Natasha Landau.
The present exhibition of themed work at the British Institute Library is a mixture of original paintings and several copies of classics all done recently by tutors & pupils and available for purchase on the day only. A percentage of the sales will be given to the library to support their important collection and educational work in Tuscany.
Daphne Stevens, Director Arcadia Art Studio. 19th March 2012