Workshop in Bergamo.

There are some places whose mere name , for some mysterious reason, attract you.

I have always loved the name " Bergamo". An italianized version of the german "berg" ( mountain), a promise of richness and balance, strength and beauty.

A few years ago , on the way back from Venice we had a glimpse of the city from the highway and it confirmed my attraction.

Finally, in 2009 we went there for Salon ( the International gathering of Decorative Painters) and spent a week painting and enjoying the beauties of this unique city.

A perfect mix of italian art  and alpine panorama , a definition of paradise on earth for me.

My friend Lucretia Moroni, from the current generation of the ancient and locally famous Moroni family, asked me to take part to a class program she wanted to organize there.

No need to say I was honored and excited by the project.

The first workshop took place last year in November.

As we had access to the fabulous Palazzo Moroni I decided that we would spend a full day in the building. 

In the morning, Guia Arnolfi made a brillant guided visit for our seven students.

Right after this I lectured about the perspective rules, and used the gorgeous examples we could study in detail  to tell about the tricks and mysteries of the  illusionistic ceilings of the palazzo.

The game was to detect the vanishing points and guess which technical decisions the artists had made in each case. How they had built up their compositions, linked them up with the frescoes of the walls and anticipated on how the viewers would move in each room and admire their paintings.

We also studied the relationship between what we could observe and some examples from an old italian book on painted ceilings of Genova.

During the afternoon we made sketches of different architectural elements that we would use later on , like balusters, pilasters and various types of ornate moldings.

The focus was mostly put on one part of  the composition that we would use as a basis for the rest of the workshop.

After this we spent two days in a studio at Scuola Fantoni, downtown Bergamo.

The second day was devoted to reproducing, from scratch ( no transfer, no projection, pure drafting) a composition inspired from one we studied particularly in the palazzo.

We started painting on the last day...

 and all the students completed half of the full design, whcih was the goal I had set up for the group
Here are examples of students' work..

It was nice to see people proud of their work and maybe a little surprised by what they managed to learn and achieve in three days.

This is the painting  I did and used to demonstrate.

This was short but I felt it was a good workshop and I think we all enjoyed it.

One day studying, one day drawing, one day painting ...I like that.