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2014 Newsletter

 

Meet in the Garden

 

CAROLE’S COMMENTS OF THE SUMMER

Rome is spoiled.   You hear this often but Rome has been spoiled so many times.   They were saying this when Julius Caesar made it a crossroads for cultural, political, economic and social exchange between Europe, Africa and beyond.   The city has no peers, nowhere else has been so used and re-used, with the past and present intermingled to such an extent.   It lends itself to an intensity of observation and it’s history is in the stones.   Wherever you turn, memorable deeds have been acted and at night the past becomes solemn again.   We notice this when we paint in the dark overlooking the fields of ruins at the Forum. Usually the rains are over by summer but this year we were caught painting in tropical storms and whether that helps the watercolor in progress is in the lap of the Gods. Either way you run.

Our students came from Australia, Turkey, USA, Columbia & the UK. They got used to the intensity of working every weekday and either traveling at weekends or recovering in bed and much compelling, significant artwork was made. Paintings made by 11 students were selected for a September show in Dubai at the American University. It was well received and the show will be mentioned in Studio International, while the paintings have now traveled to the Langford 120 Gallery in Melbourne, Australia where the exhibit opens in October.

Our field trips included Ostia, Tivoli, Florence & Pompeii where we marveled at the aspirations of the artists and architects; marveling too at the Velasquez portrait of the Pope in Doria Pamphilj and the Caravaggio’s thrown like gauntlets into the Roman churches.   We’re actually marveling at the aspirations of human society, not discarding but adapting and reinventing traditions.

In Rome we get stunned and inspired by the achievements but we’re not nostalgic for the past.   We don’t emulate it we celebrate it, and use it to take up the challenge of painting and drawing in the 21st. century. SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus) was on the standards of Roman legions from the Ancient Roman Republic.   It’s still on coins, documents….and manhole covers.   See what I mean about Rome’s past and present?

Carole Robb, Artistic Director, Rome Art Program

 

ONCE AMOR

Blue is my favourite colour. Indigo. In Rome I fell in love with golden green the gardens the water the river the sky on twilight sang with the colour of life lemon yellow leaves dance sun kissed luminous dazzling light falls clouds build lavender mountains above memories laid in stone marble like butter melting in the heat dripping rain drops heavens open. Levin lights up the city. Sweet scent fresh air. Cobbles glisten. I listen to the bells. The swallows look like fish flying in the ocean. I see an elephant. We feed him a carrot. You touch my hand. A monkey watches me draw closer we grow in time a point between circles. I will return to where I started. It’s not a race. It’s a run. Come on. Antiamo. Good job. Almost home is where we are together. People make a place feel like home. Love. Amor. Once amor. Once more the music carries me through a painting I drew sitting beside you on a bus that didn’t run. It was Sunday. Roses released inside the Pantheon petals fly dust settles layer upon layer a city of stories including ours. Watercolor paint flows freely swims deeply sings softly my love once amor.

Chloe Vallance, RMIT University, Melbourne Australia. 8 week Rome Session 2014

 

 

 

JOSH’S COMMENTS

Being in the Rome Art Program for 8 weeks left me changed both on a personal and artistic level. Rome Art Program is a full-time art-making endeavor and participants are expected to treat it as such. Students travel throughout Rome and each location visited is thoroughly explored both through painting and drawing, as well as historically. By the time a student leaves, they will have an intimate knowledge of the city both inside and out. The nature of this program is such that a participant cannot help but be overtaken by the power of their surroundings. Being immersed in the city in such an intensive and relentless way forces the artist to come out of the students here. Rome Art Program is not for the casual artist. If someone intends on visiting Italy and making art on the side, then this is not a suitable course of study. If you participate in this program, your time in Rome will almost exclusively be put towards it. The faculty are very committed to the program and have a very clear idea of what they want students to get out of the experience. Students who are looking for guidance and close monitoring of their art practice may find this comforting. Students who are more independently driven may find this cumbersome. At times I found myself at both ends of this spectrum. But mostly I was somewhere in between those extremes, and as the course progressed I was able to settle into a rhythm of working that I found very agreeable to my practice. It pushed me to think about the things that matter most to me as a painter.

Joshua Harriman, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. 8 week Rome Session 2014

 

 

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