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Welcome to my portfolio
The shell
From "Poèmes" collection.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
I was in Puglia, in a small white town embraced by a vibrant evening light. I was walking with my daughter sheltered in my womb. I felt full of joy. I was watching some kids cheerfully playing and making wheels when a girl among them approached me. In the easiest sublime way she told me: Do you want it? My eyes were grateful for the gift. A beautiful good omen shell I still keep as a treasure.
When I read this poem I remembered the scene and couldn't resist drawing an illustration to celebrate this magic moment I had lived.
Me han traìdo una caracola.
Dentro le canta
un mar de mapa.
Mi corazón
se llena de agua
con pececillos
de sombra y plata.
Me han traído una caracola.
Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), ""Caracola"", appears in Canciones para niños, first published 1921-4.
They’ve brought me a shell.
It sings inside
a sea on a map.
My heart
fills up with water
with little fish
of shadow and silver.
They’ve brought me a shell.”
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
I was in Puglia, in a small white town embraced by a vibrant evening light. I was walking with my daughter sheltered in my womb. I felt full of joy. I was watching some kids cheerfully playing and making wheels when a girl among them approached me. In the easiest sublime way she told me: Do you want it? My eyes were grateful for the gift. A beautiful good omen shell I still keep as a treasure.
When I read this poem I remembered the scene and couldn't resist drawing an illustration to celebrate this magic moment I had lived.
Me han traìdo una caracola.
Dentro le canta
un mar de mapa.
Mi corazón
se llena de agua
con pececillos
de sombra y plata.
Me han traído una caracola.
Federico García Lorca (1898 - 1936), ""Caracola"", appears in Canciones para niños, first published 1921-4.
They’ve brought me a shell.
It sings inside
a sea on a map.
My heart
fills up with water
with little fish
of shadow and silver.
They’ve brought me a shell.”
Promessa di Primavera
From "Poèmes" collection.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
Winter wind
ends
the sound of the sea.
Haiku by Ikenishi Gonsui
木枯らしの
果てはありけり
海の音"
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
Winter wind
ends
the sound of the sea.
Haiku by Ikenishi Gonsui
木枯らしの
果てはありけり
海の音"
Glittering eyes
From "Poèmes" collection.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - The Minpins by Roald Dahl
This illustration is dedicated to my son, a great observer passionate about nature, looking at the world with his creative and original perspective, who makes me discover the hidden beauty and magic around us.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” - The Minpins by Roald Dahl
This illustration is dedicated to my son, a great observer passionate about nature, looking at the world with his creative and original perspective, who makes me discover the hidden beauty and magic around us.
Anna's garden -
the search
Original size: 29,5x21,9 cm
gouaches and coloured pencils.
A celebration of the joyful and colourful nature of New Zealand in a charming garden in Mangawhai.
Ngā mihi nui
gouaches and coloured pencils.
A celebration of the joyful and colourful nature of New Zealand in a charming garden in Mangawhai.
Ngā mihi nui
Tintarella di luna
Original size: 28,5x20 cm
pencil, coloured pencils
Ricordi leggeri di un'estate italiana, gli anni '60. Amarcord immaginato degli anni spensierati di mia mamma. E riaffiorano alla mente i suoi racconti di persone, luoghi e modi diversi di vedere il mondo e di vivere. Atmosfere di famiglia che custodisco con affetto.
pencil, coloured pencils
Ricordi leggeri di un'estate italiana, gli anni '60. Amarcord immaginato degli anni spensierati di mia mamma. E riaffiorano alla mente i suoi racconti di persone, luoghi e modi diversi di vedere il mondo e di vivere. Atmosfere di famiglia che custodisco con affetto.
Moon of Bethlehem
Original size: 28,5x20
Coloured pencils
De la lumière, du silence, de la douceur.
A wish of Peace Freedom and Sweetness to the world.
Coloured pencils
De la lumière, du silence, de la douceur.
A wish of Peace Freedom and Sweetness to the world.
Rêve matinal sous le regard de Rangitoto
Original size: 25 x 25 cm
Oil painting on canvas
Oil painting on canvas
Un été invincible
Original size: 95x45cm
Oil painting on canvas
Albert Camus écrivait : "Au milieu de l'hiver, j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été".
When I arrived in New Zealand , this incredible light in all seasons, the evergreen trees, the ancient rocks with fossils looked like a visible correspondence to an inner perennial summer, acquired with labour across moments of gelid suffering. The timeless landscape seems to wisely suggest to watch life from a different perspective.
Oil painting on canvas
Albert Camus écrivait : "Au milieu de l'hiver, j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été".
When I arrived in New Zealand , this incredible light in all seasons, the evergreen trees, the ancient rocks with fossils looked like a visible correspondence to an inner perennial summer, acquired with labour across moments of gelid suffering. The timeless landscape seems to wisely suggest to watch life from a different perspective.
À fleur de peau
From "Les petits", small paintings on printed paper based on reference photos.
15,3x15,3 cm Not printable. Model photo by Karina Twiss, published on Vogue, March 2021.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils
The illustrated theme is High sensitivity, researches about Sensory Processing Sensitivity were started by Dr Elaine Aron in the 90s.
If you'd like to discover more about it: https://hsperson.com/
This is a normal trait, innate, found in over 100 species. 20-30% of humankind share this trait in different ways.
15,3x15,3 cm Not printable. Model photo by Karina Twiss, published on Vogue, March 2021.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils
The illustrated theme is High sensitivity, researches about Sensory Processing Sensitivity were started by Dr Elaine Aron in the 90s.
If you'd like to discover more about it: https://hsperson.com/
This is a normal trait, innate, found in over 100 species. 20-30% of humankind share this trait in different ways.
Hiver
From "Poèmes" collection.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
"Comme une graine mon âme aussi a besoin
du labour caché de cette saison."
Hiver, Derniers Jours - Giuseppe Ungaretti
A wish of a new, warm and prosperous springtime to all those who are facing a winter period. The seeds are inside you. Listen to yourself.
Change. Leave. Make plans and dreams. Meet. As soon as you can.
Original size 31x31 cm.
Watercolors, coloured pencils and gouache.
"Comme une graine mon âme aussi a besoin
du labour caché de cette saison."
Hiver, Derniers Jours - Giuseppe Ungaretti
A wish of a new, warm and prosperous springtime to all those who are facing a winter period. The seeds are inside you. Listen to yourself.
Change. Leave. Make plans and dreams. Meet. As soon as you can.
The garden of memory
From "Contes de fées" collection.
Original size 16.3x28.5 cm.
Colored pencils, neocolor II aquarelle crayons, gouache.
The beautiful cherry tree and the vines planted by my beloved grandfather. The place has changed but not under the moonlight. Our kindred souls are still there chatting and his hand is my lighthouse.
Original size 16.3x28.5 cm.
Colored pencils, neocolor II aquarelle crayons, gouache.
The beautiful cherry tree and the vines planted by my beloved grandfather. The place has changed but not under the moonlight. Our kindred souls are still there chatting and his hand is my lighthouse.
Un sogno delicato
From "Les petits", small paintings on printed paper based on a reference photo by an unknown author.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils.
Grattùla Beddatùla
From the collection "Contes de fées"
Original size 21x29,7 cm
Acrylics, chalk, watercolors
During the Master in Childhood Illustration I did in Padova in 2010 they asked us to choose one of the Italian fairy tales collected in his book by Calvino. They all show how strong and unfair has been for centuries the patriarchal society and mindset. In this one too, the daughters of the merchant are walled up inside their house in his absence during his travel, for exemple, but the female protagonist Ninetta is very strong and self confident in doing what she thinks to be right and in exploring, not obeying to her father and society's orders and imposed immobility and submission. The ending is pretty classical, though we don't know what followed, maybe she decided not to have kids but to open a philosophical school for girls and her husband supported her feminist views like an ancient Bertrand Russell. True love and open mindedness can work miracles.
Fairy tales, myths and legends had different versions, only those liked by the men who ruled society have been transmitted to our generation. They showed how women should be treated and how they should behave. Even though some less known variations on the theme has escaped the censure. I will talk you about a different Penelope in another illustration...
Original size 21x29,7 cm
Acrylics, chalk, watercolors
During the Master in Childhood Illustration I did in Padova in 2010 they asked us to choose one of the Italian fairy tales collected in his book by Calvino. They all show how strong and unfair has been for centuries the patriarchal society and mindset. In this one too, the daughters of the merchant are walled up inside their house in his absence during his travel, for exemple, but the female protagonist Ninetta is very strong and self confident in doing what she thinks to be right and in exploring, not obeying to her father and society's orders and imposed immobility and submission. The ending is pretty classical, though we don't know what followed, maybe she decided not to have kids but to open a philosophical school for girls and her husband supported her feminist views like an ancient Bertrand Russell. True love and open mindedness can work miracles.
Fairy tales, myths and legends had different versions, only those liked by the men who ruled society have been transmitted to our generation. They showed how women should be treated and how they should behave. Even though some less known variations on the theme has escaped the censure. I will talk you about a different Penelope in another illustration...
A festa do mel (Tembé - Parà, Brazil)
An older illustration from the collection " Contes de fées"
Original size 36x48 cm (paper size)
Acrylics, collage
La festa per il miele
(Tembé – Parà)
raccontata da Luigi Dal Cin
"Molto tempo fa, un uomo era salito tra le fronde di un grande albero per catturare i pappagalli che ne becchettavano i fiori, quando vide arrivare due giaguari che portavano con sé delle zucche.
I due giaguari si fermarono proprio sotto l’albero e, senza aver notato l’uomo, cominciarono a brindare bevendo del miele dalle zucche. Poi li vide entrare nel Mondo di Sotto attraverso un ingresso piccolo come quello di un formicaio.
‘Se sono entrati loro, entrerò anch’io’ pensò l’uomo e scese in fretta dall’albero.
Mentre si infilava nell’ingresso del Mondo di Sotto fu trasformato in formica, e percorse così
un’ampia strada che portava al villaggio dei giaguari. Ogni capanna aveva, appesi ad una trave sotto il tetto, molti vasi ricolmi di miele.
Verso sera i giaguari diedero inizio ai canti e alle danze, e la festa era così bella che anche l’uomo desiderò parteciparvi.
‘Nel buio non si accorgeranno che un essere umano si mescola a loro’ pensò, e così si unì alle danze.
Notte dopo notte imparò tutti i loro canti e le loro danze senza che i giaguari sospettassero la
presenza di un intruso.
Di giorno, poi, l’uomo tornava formica. E fu così che apprese tutti i segreti del Mondo di Sotto,
finché decise di risalire sulla terra.
“Ora che so come si canta e si danza sotto il miele, possiamo iniziarne la raccolta!” disse ai suoi,
dopo aver raccontato tutto quello che aveva visto e imparato. Andarono così a cercare i favi e, tra grida di gioia, ne portarono una grande quantità al villaggio.
Da quel giorno, nella foresta, tutti cantano e ballano ogni volta che il miele è appeso in vasi alle travi del tetto. "
Original size 36x48 cm (paper size)
Acrylics, collage
La festa per il miele
(Tembé – Parà)
raccontata da Luigi Dal Cin
"Molto tempo fa, un uomo era salito tra le fronde di un grande albero per catturare i pappagalli che ne becchettavano i fiori, quando vide arrivare due giaguari che portavano con sé delle zucche.
I due giaguari si fermarono proprio sotto l’albero e, senza aver notato l’uomo, cominciarono a brindare bevendo del miele dalle zucche. Poi li vide entrare nel Mondo di Sotto attraverso un ingresso piccolo come quello di un formicaio.
‘Se sono entrati loro, entrerò anch’io’ pensò l’uomo e scese in fretta dall’albero.
Mentre si infilava nell’ingresso del Mondo di Sotto fu trasformato in formica, e percorse così
un’ampia strada che portava al villaggio dei giaguari. Ogni capanna aveva, appesi ad una trave sotto il tetto, molti vasi ricolmi di miele.
Verso sera i giaguari diedero inizio ai canti e alle danze, e la festa era così bella che anche l’uomo desiderò parteciparvi.
‘Nel buio non si accorgeranno che un essere umano si mescola a loro’ pensò, e così si unì alle danze.
Notte dopo notte imparò tutti i loro canti e le loro danze senza che i giaguari sospettassero la
presenza di un intruso.
Di giorno, poi, l’uomo tornava formica. E fu così che apprese tutti i segreti del Mondo di Sotto,
finché decise di risalire sulla terra.
“Ora che so come si canta e si danza sotto il miele, possiamo iniziarne la raccolta!” disse ai suoi,
dopo aver raccontato tutto quello che aveva visto e imparato. Andarono così a cercare i favi e, tra grida di gioia, ne portarono una grande quantità al villaggio.
Da quel giorno, nella foresta, tutti cantano e ballano ogni volta che il miele è appeso in vasi alle travi del tetto. "
L'ultima bacca
From "Les petits", small paintings on printed paper based on a reference photo by an unknown author.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils.
Size: 15,3 x 15,3 cm
Watercolors and coloured pencils.
Irène Némirovsky
From "Bianche stelle" collection.
Original size 15x21 cm
Pencil and soft pastel.
Vos romans et votre biographie m'ont touchée. Vous avez un regard si profond et doux. Vous êtes une blanche étoile qui brille dans nos yeux maintenant, à toujours dans nos coeurs. Je vous embrasse. Marta
"Irène Némirovsky was a talented novelist born in 1903 in Kiev (Russian Empire) and murdered in 1942, during the Holocaust. Némirovsky’s family fled the Russian Revolution and settled in France in 1919. She studied at the Sorbonne and began writing at eighteen. She published her first novel, L’Enfant Génial, in 1927. Her next two novels, David Golder (1929) and Le Bal (1930), were great successes and were adapted for the screen. Despite her literary achievements and popular acclaim, she struggled with antisemitism and converted to Catholicism in 1939. In 1942 she was sent to Auschwitz, where she died of typhus. In 1990 her daughter Elisabeth Gille published Némirovsky’s Suite Française, a novel about the invasion of Paris. The novel won the Prix Renaudot in 2004, a first for a posthumous author."
From The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nemirovsky-irene
Some quotes from her books: "Jamais elle ne devait oublier cette brève saison. Il reste toujours au fond du coeur le regret d'une heure, d'un été, d'un court moment, où l'on atteint sans doute son point de floraison." Jézabel
"Cette amitié entre elle et l'Allemand, ce secret dérobé, un monde caché au sein de la maison hostile, que c'était doux, mon Dieu ! Elle se sentait alors un être humain, fier et libre. " Suite française
"Les événements graves, heureux ou malheureux ne changent pas l'âme d'un homme mais ils la précisent, comme un coup de vent en balayant les feuilles mortes révèle la forme d'un arbre ; ils mettent en lumière ce qui était laissé dans l'ombre ; ils inclinent l'esprit dans la direction où il croîtra désormais." Suite française
Souvent je me suis posé la question, pourquoi êtes-vous restée en France?
Peut-être, une réponse:
"Qu'ils aillent où ils veulent ; moi, je ferai ce que je voudrai. Je veux être libre. Je demande moins la liberté extérieure, celle de voyager, que d'être libre intérieurement, choisir ma direction à moi, m'y tenir, ne pas suivre l'essaim." Suite française
Original size 15x21 cm
Pencil and soft pastel.
Vos romans et votre biographie m'ont touchée. Vous avez un regard si profond et doux. Vous êtes une blanche étoile qui brille dans nos yeux maintenant, à toujours dans nos coeurs. Je vous embrasse. Marta
"Irène Némirovsky was a talented novelist born in 1903 in Kiev (Russian Empire) and murdered in 1942, during the Holocaust. Némirovsky’s family fled the Russian Revolution and settled in France in 1919. She studied at the Sorbonne and began writing at eighteen. She published her first novel, L’Enfant Génial, in 1927. Her next two novels, David Golder (1929) and Le Bal (1930), were great successes and were adapted for the screen. Despite her literary achievements and popular acclaim, she struggled with antisemitism and converted to Catholicism in 1939. In 1942 she was sent to Auschwitz, where she died of typhus. In 1990 her daughter Elisabeth Gille published Némirovsky’s Suite Française, a novel about the invasion of Paris. The novel won the Prix Renaudot in 2004, a first for a posthumous author."
From The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nemirovsky-irene
Some quotes from her books: "Jamais elle ne devait oublier cette brève saison. Il reste toujours au fond du coeur le regret d'une heure, d'un été, d'un court moment, où l'on atteint sans doute son point de floraison." Jézabel
"Cette amitié entre elle et l'Allemand, ce secret dérobé, un monde caché au sein de la maison hostile, que c'était doux, mon Dieu ! Elle se sentait alors un être humain, fier et libre. " Suite française
"Les événements graves, heureux ou malheureux ne changent pas l'âme d'un homme mais ils la précisent, comme un coup de vent en balayant les feuilles mortes révèle la forme d'un arbre ; ils mettent en lumière ce qui était laissé dans l'ombre ; ils inclinent l'esprit dans la direction où il croîtra désormais." Suite française
Souvent je me suis posé la question, pourquoi êtes-vous restée en France?
Peut-être, une réponse:
"Qu'ils aillent où ils veulent ; moi, je ferai ce que je voudrai. Je veux être libre. Je demande moins la liberté extérieure, celle de voyager, que d'être libre intérieurement, choisir ma direction à moi, m'y tenir, ne pas suivre l'essaim." Suite française
Marlene
From the collection: "Cinéma"
Original size: 17,5 x 24 cm
Characoal and white soft pastel
Original size: 17,5 x 24 cm
Characoal and white soft pastel
Le point de vue du sucre
From the collection Cuisine et cafè
Original size 30 cm
Acrylics colors
Ma cristalline
douceur porte un goût amer.
Instants de désir.
Marta
Original size 30 cm
Acrylics colors
Ma cristalline
douceur porte un goût amer.
Instants de désir.
Marta
Place aux herbes - sketch in Menton
gouache
A cafè in Menton - sketch
gouache and coloured pencils
Amazonie, 1983 - a sketch
coloured pencils
Noureev - a sketch
A peony
coloured pencils
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