I was in Assisi once for a single afternoon and in my memory of it, I am within its walls and floating above the town.
I’m surprised by the way Taliano captures that visceral memory.
Here is how Taliano describes making them:
“These watercolors were done in an open air studio during a residency in Umbria at a farmhouse outside of Assisi. I went with a set of high key colors, determined not to return with clichéd landscapes of Italy, but in the end, I succumbed to the Italian colors, and the landscape. In Assisi, there is the Basilica of St. Francis. I was told this was where Italian painting was born from the marriage of Roman and Byzantine art, the synthesis of the naturalism of Roman painting and the abstract formal structures of Byzantine art. Every Italian painter of the 15 century passed through this monumental cathedral to learn how to paint. Frescos are literally plastered on every wall, portico, corner, column, ceiling of the church, creating layered waves of visual harmonies that work together to produce a sublime sound. Along with the fresco series by Giotto of the life of St. Francis, I was particularly taken by Cimabue’s frescos. These mysterious paintings “damaged” by oxidation, and their remaining abstract shapes that snake across the wall, put a spell on me. When I was painting these watercolors, I was thinking of the Cimabue’s, the marriage of naturalism and abstraction, and the layered histories, saints and paint, that make up the Italian landscape.”
—CNQ
See more of Lisa Taliano’s work here
