To introduce myself as a guest blogger for this most celebrated of charitable Art Foundations accords me great pleasure, and I hope gives you, the reader, and me, some entertainment.  To start with, I am no heady intellectual with years of academic study and half the alphabet following my name to prove that I have read a few books.  My study has been largely one of heritage and osmosis, curiosity and a passion.  

Ah, passion, I hear you say, a heady word, but in Art it is all there – every subject from every angle at every period of time.   What more can be said?  It is my passion, and I am the most fortunate of creatures that I can indulge both the fantasy and the full passion of the senses.   ‘ars gratia artis’  *

In March, Rome beckoned.  Italy does, after all, hold three quarters of the world’s Renaissance art, and Rome- with the Vatican – has that wonderful papal love of display, the joie de vivre of the Renaissance. So with my spring bounce and the sap rising, I joined an esoteric study group of seven artists wishing to discover some of the arcane aspects of the painters’ materials and how they developed through the centuries.  I cannot stress the exclusivity of this course as I am to understand that Mr. Pip Seymour** is now a world authority on this subject and rarely invites other artists to join him on his adventures. 

Rome was heaven.   Being there with six other artists was enriching mentally, visually and spiritually, and since the Vatican has 5 miles of galleries to walk through, dare I say, physically!   We embraced the lot. . . . and much much more; sometimes merely a glance and sometimes a full blown half an hour critique. 

Apart from the Vatican, the highlights for me were The Borghese Gallery and the stunning sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.  I became fascinated with the Man (he deserves the capital letter!) — painter, sculptor, architect, designer of fountains, and he had time for enough sex to father eleven children.  His ‘David’ is said to be based on his own portrait – well all I can say is, if anyone out there knows of the modern-day equivalent I should be happy to find his shoes under my bed . . . so to speak!

* art for art’s sake  – MGM use this on their logo but I wish they hadn’t.
**  www.southlondonartsupplies.com  /  The Artists Handbook by Pip Seymour – US distributor is: www.kremer-pigments.com