assisi art residency snow

Assisi residency: winter wonderland

I fell a bit behind on my blogging about my residency in Assisi, didn’t I? In my last post the exhibition had just gone up (the year-end exhibition including work by all the artists who had been on the residency program in 2012). The opening reception was well-attended and a lot of fun. These are … Read more

the exhibition space

Assisi: sun and setting up the exhibition

I’ve been an artist in residence in at Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Umbria for almost a week now. The sun has come back, allowing for more long walks in the hills. In the studio I’ve been working on some pastel drawings of the city and surrounding landscape. Yesterday we went into the city of Assisi … Read more

Nerone and his sister

Rainy days at Arte Studio Ginestrelle

The last couple days have been rather gray and rainy here in Assisi, offering us the perfect excuse to sit by the fire and drink grappa for several hours each evening. Days are spent in the studio making art. Yesterday I did a series of sketches with wine bottles, and some landscapes of the rolling … Read more

Ginestrelle studio

Settling in at Ginestrelle

Today was my first full day working at Arte Studio Ginestrelle (an artists’ retreat outside of Assisi, Italy). Before breakfast I went out for a morning walk through the surrounding hills. The sun was bright and the autumn colors were dazzling. Breakfast featured local deliciousness in the form of fresh ricotta cheese and yogurt from … Read more

AssisiSketch

Greetings from Assisi

Sketch of Assisi, charcoal and pastel on paper, ©2012 Julie Galante. On Friday I said goodbye to my Munich apartment for the last time and headed south towards Italy. We stayed with friends in Padua last night, and today came the rest of the way to Arte Studio Ginestrelle, a remote artists’ residency outside of … Read more

Assisi View Mixed Media

Tokyo and Assisi and Kickstarter and me

Work in progress: a mixed-media Assisi skyline First, the big news: my Kickstarter project is live! The goal is to fund my February residency in Tokyo, Japan, by offering original artwork and other rewards to backers. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the support I’ve received already in these first couple days. It’s now my last … Read more

Daily painting: Santo Stefano, Bologna

Bologna – Santo Stefano, 18 x 24 cm, oil on canvas board, ©2011 Julie Galante. [SOLD] I love Bologna for its extensive porticoes, which cover the sidewalks and allow you to enjoy a stroll through the city center in almost any weather. This scene also depicts Santo Stefano, kind of a complex of churches all … Read more

Revisiting Venice

Venice gondoliere, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, ©2011 Julie Galante. If you follow this or my other blog, you’ll have an idea how much I love Italy. It seems unfair that a single country can contain so much wonderful food, art, and beauty. I find the combination irresistible. So it’s not so surprising … Read more

New cityscape: Assisi, outside the Hotel Pallotta

Assisi – outside the Hotel Pallotta, 60 x 80 cm, oil on canvas, ©2010 Julie Galante. Over the past couple months this blog has become mainly a chronicle of my small daily paintings, but I want to continue to share my larger works, too. Like this one, the first full-sized cityscape I’ve completed for a … Read more

Palette-knife Assisi

This week I’m playing around with palette-knife painting. I just love the textures that come out of applying thick blobs of paint via palette knife. I didn’t love the way the materials worked on these first attempts – perhaps the paint wasn’t as thick as I’d like, and the board (gessoed Masonite) not quite the … Read more