From the RomeArtProgram’s 2012, Frankie O’Toole’s nice exciting memories to contribute to the “Throwback Thursday”:
–>Frankie O’Toole : “Before I embarked upon the Rome Art Program, I spent no time in my studio and struggled to see how I was ever going to, with the demands of a full-time teaching career. I felt my journey as a creative had ended before it had a chance to begin.
At the age of 34, I packed my bags and spent two overwhelming weeks painting on the streets of Rome. My goal was to try and reignite whatever passion might be left in me and reinvigorate my studio practice. The Rome Art Program instilled in me that you must work at it, every day, if you want to improve, allowed me to experiment, explore and above all challenge myself. I came from an oil painting background, so working with watercolours was completely outside of my comfort zone. I struggled… a lot. But every now and then I surprised myself.
The lessons of the day before digested and with the new day a new desire to learn, improve and excel. It was glorious and heartening to spend so much time immersed in art, shoulder to shoulder, with other creatives and leaders in the field.
I returned to Australia and began the task of finding the artist I created on the streets of Rome in my studio. I began to draw again, venturing outdoors to paint plein air, demonstrating and sharing my skills with my students, researching new techniques and immersing myself with new artists.
My lust for learning and exploring was exciting! I journey back to Italy in 2014 and began capturing my surroundings in travel journals and in June 2015 I challenged myself to create one drawing a day.
I would post my daily drawings to my One Drawing a Day By Frankie O Facebook page. The process became a fantastic creative Exchange; soon I had a following of 500 people and offers to buy my work. From there the journey toward my first solo exhibition began. To add pressure to my new found artistic venture I became pregnant with my first baby, and as luck would have I was going to give birth during this project and have a new born while trying to organise my first ever exhibition which included all 365 drawings!
The opening night was hugely successful with well over 200 people attending, including the local media: almost 85% of the 365 works were sold by the time the exhibition finished with a string of commissions lined up ready to go as soon as I caught my breath. It was incredible!
And I am looking forward to doing it all again, just as soon as I get back from my next trip to Italy!
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Rome Art Program – Art As Power