POSTCARDS FROM ITALY
A NEW COLLECTION OF JOURNALS
Inspired by weathered walls & the ancient art of Italy.
My family and I have spent most of our summer holidays in Italy, I always return home with tons of photographs snapped of textured walls, doors and ancient frescoes that have stood the test of time and become more beautiful in all their faded beauty; the idea being that one day I would use the photos as book cover art or bookplates, perhaps even a calendar someday. I’ve always had an adoration for things a bit faded, tattered or torn, so when I first saw frescoes on the walls of the open air museum that is Rome and later the wall panels of Villa di Livia, I fell in love with this way of painting which is regarded as the mother of all painting styles because of its most demanding technique where the artist has to paint quickly on wet plaster made of a mixture of ground lime and sand, often completing a detailed painting in a day using only natural pigments that don’t react with the plaster.
The Fresco painter is part artist, part alchemist and part magician!
I am by no means going to attempt to paint a fresco the way it is traditionally done, my humble aim for this new journal collection is to capture the essence and magic of a fresco on textured backgrounds created with various mediums and painted with handmade earth-friendly watercolour pigments sourced from quarry waste in Italy.
This is an ambitious project for me, it's all rather experimental, but I am having the best time working on it. Some years ago I began this collection with a handful of photo albums and journals using a combination acrylic paint, photo transfers and abstract paintings inadvertently left on my workbench from painting other book covers. I always wanted to create a full collection inspired by photographs I’ve taken in Italy, but sometimes life gets in the way and other things take priority.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
A glimpse at past work.
Journals, paintings & photo transfers created using ancient fresco art as inspiration.
2013- 2016.
POMEGRANATES of POMPEII - 2016
A LITTLE BACK STORY
I began dreaming about creating a new collection based on the photographs I’ve taken in Italy back in 2018 after a weekend trip to Naples turned into a week long trip due to a snowstorm [The Beast from the East] when it snowed relentlessly from January to April; it was the longest winter! Brian and I had planned a weekend trip months before and we were really looking forward to just spending a few days not doing very much other than meandering through narrow ochre coloured streets, stopping often for coffee and cannoli while people watching from a cafe window.
It was a sweet weekend, albeit unusually chilly for Naples at the end of February; little did we know what was about to happen next!
While stood in a queue waiting to board our flight back home, I noticed a gentle flurry of snow falling on the runway, before I could say ‘snowflakes’, the whole airport fell into meltdown! It hadn’t snowed in Naples for over 15 years! The Beast from the East snowstorm we thought we’d left behind in England had followed us to Italy! Within a few minutes there was an announcement that all flights out of Naples and Rome had been cancelled until further notice!
Now, I know being stranded in Italy is not the worst thing in the world, but nevertheless we were ready to go home to get back to our family, instead we were handed a hotel voucher and told to go enjoy Naples since there would be no flights for 5 days!
By this stage hundreds of grumpy and tired passengers had spilled out onto the streets outside Napoli airport looking for a cab. Thankfully Brian and I didn’t have to wait too long for one as we chose to jump in a large cab with 2 other couples. What happened next had us all laughing and singing!
THE SINGING NEOPOLITAN CABBIE
A MONTAGE FROM MY INSTAGRAM STORIES - 2018
Our cheerful Cabbie was ironically playing Volaré [which means FLY in Italian] on the stereo, he could see that our moods did not match his, so to light the mood he turned the volume up and began to SING!
Pienso que un sueño parecido no volverá más
Y me pintaba las manos y la cara de azul
Y de improviso el viento rápido me llevó
Y me hizo volar en el cielo infinito
Volaré, oh-oh
This was all we needed to lift our spirits and see the next 5 days as an unexpected adventure!
Once settled into our hotel, we made plans for a few day trips to Porcida, Ischia, Sorrento and to see the frescoes of Pompeii.
Of all the times we had visited Italy in the past, we had never been to Pompeii, mainly because of the how busy it gets during the summer months with tourists, but since we were there in February, we practically had Pompeii to ourselves. It was eerily quiet, but the lack of tourists meant I didn’t need to get on my tippy-toes to look over heads and shoulders to see the ancient art immortalised by time. and now living on as journals to fill with more art!
Limited edition
Pompeii Journals
Soft back journals with handmade cotton rag paper, suitable for mixed media and fountain pens. There are only two of each design available with white or black pages.
Each journal measures 11 cm x 15.5 cm {6 x 4.5 inches}.
72 sheets, 144 pages
Journals with white pages - £85
Journal with black pages - £110
FIVE OF MY FAVOURITES ENCASED I
N A GLASS + COPPER DISPLAY BOX.
£140
One-of-a-kind
Venice Journals
Pocket size hardback journals with gilded and etched leather spines featuring beautiful Venetian illustrated paper on the covers and lined with hand marbled endpapers inside, bound with plenty handmade cotton rag watercolour paper which also works well with fountain pens. There are only five journals in this style which I hope will bring some romance and inspiration to the to the future keeper’s creative space.
Each journal measures 11.5cm x 8cm x 3cm { 4.5 x 3.5 x 1.2 inches}
72 sheets, 144 pages.
£120 each.
This collection is a work in progress and I am already working behind the scenes on series 2, creating journals with a fresco like effect using photo transfers and rich historical pigments from Italy.
While researching the techniques used for fresco painting I stumbled upon this beautiful short film which left me feeling even more inspired.
''It is known that all things are temporary,
they will pass and perish, in fact whatever man does,
does not last; but the Fresco by nature is eternal.''
~Patrizia Gioia —The Ancient Art of Fresco
POSTCARDS FROM ITALY
