Liz Graham-Yooll
Liz Graham-Yooll studied painting in Florence in the 1970s and continues to take her inspiration from the Tuscan landscape and gardens. Painter, illustrator, and writer of children's books, she now works from her light-filled studio in Montisi. In her oils and watercolors, she strives to capture the excitement of the colors and play of light that first drew her to Tuscany. When not in her studio she may be found painting or sketching in the gardens and olive groves that surround the village. Visitors are welcome to her studio, by appointment. Podere la Fratta, Montisi. Tel: 0577 845211. Visit her website.
Kennedy Harpsichords
Kennedy Harpsichords is a small workshop in Tuscany building harpsichords and clavichords after 17th and 18th century historical models. Their instruments can be found throughout the world and heard on more than 100 recordings. All instruments are built using only those materials and methods which were standard practice in those centuries. This includes wooden jacks, string material composition reproduced after original samples by Oxford University, and when available, Swiss spruce soundboard wood dating from 1650–1775. Instruments are normally quilled in delrin but may be bird quilled by request. Any decoration is possible. Some of the world's best artisans are still at work in nearby Florence.
Visit their web site and stop in next time you're in nearby Castelmuzio.
Elizabeth Cochrane
Elizabeth Cochrane studied Art at Manchester Polytechnic and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She came to Tuscany in 1995 and organized watercolor painting courses in Cortona. Elizabeth is primarily a landscape painter working in oil and watercolor. She found the light and the rhythms of the Tuscan landscape a perfect environment for her work. She has been exhibiting and selling her paintings for over 15 years and her work is now in private collections worldwide. She lives in the center of the village and her studio can be visited by appointment. Tel: 0577-845226. Address: Via del Castello 37, Montisi. Learn more about Elizabeth on her web site.
David Mackie
"I've always liked to work with quite solid materials and also solid forms. Much of what we can see of the art of the ancient past is like this, and it's always been a great source of inspiration to me. In any case, most of my sculptures are constructions. Often, the idea underlying these constructions isn't clear at the beginning, but instead evolves during the making of the piece. There is an initial stage when the sculpture is a kind of game, much like the games young children play; a speculative period when one tries to animate simple objects and make them interact. At some point I discover an idea to link the various parts together. If I can find a way to synthesize this sense of play with these rather solid forms, the sculpture then takes shape." Contact details: David Mackie, Pod. Picciolo, 53020 Montisi (SI), +39 0577-845-225. .
Reinhold Traxl
"With its steep hills, the 'crete senesi' is for me one of the most beautiful and one of the most unusual landscapes in Europe...The 'crete senesi' is a fertile desert. At the end of the summer when they work the burned earth, the hills look like dunes...This land has changed my way of thinking. The heat disperses petty and superfluous thoughts. You are obliged to work more freely..." – Reinhold Traxl, "Excerpts from the story of my life"
Hangar lx-art, 53020 Montisi (Si), tel. & fax: +39 0577 845232. Visitors strictly by appointment. Web site.
Giovanni Crescimanni
TRANSFORMING THE REAL LANDSCAPE INTO A LANDSCAPE OF THE MIND
"For years I tried to freeze in pictures moments and places. Everything can enter pictures, images but also your thoughts and desires. These were moments in which I dedicated more time and more space for painting, to represent a sign or an idea on a grand scale, to allow myself to expand it on the page or on the canvas, and to live within the colour for a day.
"The discovery of Chinese culture had a notable influence on me; its search for the just and perfect that is in us. To represent the succession and repetition of days with small and big mutations. In this succession of days there is something obsessive represented by a repeated sign. Repeated but always different, because the context in which we place the monotonous day is different, and because we, as individuals, are different."
Studio:
Podere La Chiusa
Monterongrifoli
53020 San Giovanni d'Asso
Tel: 339 8194163
Web site
Katherine Wright
Katherine Wright is an architect, architectural illustrator, artist, and enthusiastic traveler. While living in Southern Italy with her family, she found herself able to explore Italy. She believes that to truly see the wonder of a place, one has to experience it through the seasons. She works en plein air, giving her a first-hand understanding of a place so vital in capturing the rhythms, patterns, and light of the locations she paints. Since 2005, she has lived and painted in Giovinazzo, Puglia, and has also painted and exhibited in Montisi during this period. She says, "My works of art do not want to be an exact reproduction of reality. I attempt a more direct expression of experience." Web site: www.klwright.com