FOOD AND ART - mushrooms - AUTUMN 22
Graziano came with an orange bowl of clean nails or chiodini…..I improvised a risotto: A cup and a half of arborio rice. Fry a red onion chopped finely with a carrot and a clove of garlic, add some Lugana white wine, stir in the rice and some pancetta and then ladle in the broth. I added the chiodini half way through cooking and some freshly chopped parsley form Graziano’s orto- (kitchen garden) what else?! So who is Graziano?! He is my dearest friend and next door neighbour of 89 who has the energy of a titan. He leaves the house at 8.30am everyday to be back by 12. His frugal lunch is quickly over and he’s out again tending the garden he looks after until 6pm.
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CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF ART
Hundreds of visitors from all over the world came, except that they were mainly adults. On the closing day I was asked to submit a proposal to teach at the local primary school and it was accepted. So I can finally reach the children to share my enthusiasm for art.
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SUMMER FASHION SHOW
Ciao a tutti,
Sono tornata sul blog dopo un inverno duro e lungo.
L'estate ha comminciato bene con una piccola sfilata con giovane atlete
che indossavano le mie sciarpe! E stato una serata divertente, le
ragazze hanno fatto una esibizione di nuoto synchronizzato, quindi ho
messo qualche foto dei costumi!
Potete vedere altri lavori di
stoffe mie sotto la sezione TEXTILES sul sito, ci sono anche pezzi per
l'arredamento. Ci sono le girafe fantastiche fatte di pezzetti di seta,
tagliatii dai foulard o cravatte dei stilisti noti. Ho ancora qualche
stola per la sera, uno dipinto a mano con i fiori ed un altro tubolare
con un leopardo sopra. Nascosto dentro c'è una borsetta per la sera.
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NEW TIGER SCARVES
Le mie nuove sciarpe color indaco sono arrivate da Colours of Nature, Auroville (Auroville si trova in Tamil Nadu, nel sud dell'India). Il mio disegno è stato realizzato prima con un tampone fatto a chiodi e la cera messa dopo con il metodo batik.
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FOLLOW UP TUKASA SHOW
Volevo dire un grande grazie a tutti voi chi siete venuti alla mia
mostra. Vostro supporto è molto apprezzato. Per chi non ha potuto venire
vi lascio un po di fotos. Ora sto lavorando sulle nuove idea che spero
di dividere con voi a breve. La primavera si avvicina e anche tante
belle sorprese...
Guardate il link su You tube delle mie sciarpe animate, ci vuole solo un minuto!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUfpqPBbAwI
Grazie,
Irma
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MY NEWS!
Ciao a tutti,
E un po di tempo che non vi scrivo ed è ora di darvi un po di news sui miei nuovi progetti....
Sto
comminciando una linea di stole dipinte a mano. Quest'estate i primi
parei di cotone hanno avuto un grande successo. Ogni pareo aveva una
piccola bambolina attacata in un angolo. Queste bamboline sono fatte nel
sud del'India ad Auroville, dalle donne per creare un piccolo business
per auto finanziarsi dopo lo tsunami.
http://www.tsunamika.org
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20 YEARS AT THE NEHRU CENTRE
It's been 2 weeks since I got back from the UK and it already seems like
a lot longer. The Nehru show was a great turn out celebrating 20 years
of cultural events, with about 20 different women artists. Consequently I
decided to enter 2 out of 3 of my paintings for the Royal Academy
Summer exhibition, but I won't know if I have been accepted until the
end of May!
Certainly a highlight of my trip was the David Hockney at
the RA. If he has all that energy at his age, and he must be nearly 70
and making some of the largest 'en plein air paintings' on record, then
there is hope for me yet! His energy is quite amazing, but when you do
what you love the more you do the more inspired you feel, unless you
burn yourself out..but he doesn't seem the kind. Hockney comes across as
a very rational artist and passionate at the same time....
I have
come back inspired to paint and all free time when not designing for the
fashion industry I am back at my easel. Morocco still inspires me big
time...I hope to exhibit there one day in the near future.....
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SNOW SNOW SNOW!
Well I can't say I'm not using my outdoor office anymore, as you see my
table on the terrace looks like a cake with loads of icing! So it's only
indoor working now with a sad lamp for those dark days but actually
there aren't too many! Como and Brunate look great dressed in white. I
can still get to Como with the funicular when the roads are bad and Luca
has given up taking his car to work all together .
I'm designing
scarves for the same company as last year and trying to collaborate with
India to get some samples made of my own designs. This seems like a
huge feat as communication is very slack so I just have to keep up those
emails, hoping sooner or laler somebody answers!
I had a fun trip
with the freccia rossa or red arrow train which got me to Florence in
just 2 hours, leaving from Milan! The trip was magic and snowy all the
way until we got to Florence and there was no snow but an icy wind! I
was so happy to be back there since I left Florence in 1994 and rarely
go back. The Duomo is always amazing! I went to PItti casa to find new
clients for my interior design range. Need to follow up those contacts
now!
..and to keep away those winter chills heres's my first attempt
at castagnaccio...an old recipe from this area, so filling and no sugar,
butter or flour:
- 500 g Chestnut flour
- 1 liter water
- handful pinenuts
- handful raisins soaked in water for 30 mins
- olive oil
mix
the flour and water together, adding the raisins and pinenuts. You will
get quite a liquid consistency. Dribble a little good quality olive oil
all over. Bake in an oiled pyrex dish at 180°C in a preheated oven for
an hour. The top should look cracked when done. EAT IT WARM
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
I am back from India and find myself thinking it must have all been a
dream but this blog is helping me relive my trip. .....I arrived in
Chennai on December 4th at 3am and took a lovely old white Ambassador
taxi to Mamamallapuram, only I almost did not get there as we ran out of
petrol. Fortunately the driver flagged down a motorbike and a guy
brought us a plastic bottle full of petrol, enough to get us to our
hotel. The zone turned out to be marvellous. Temples galore from the 7th
Century and all in walking distance from the hotel. One of the most
incredible sights is this huge stone which has eroded over the centuries
leaving a ball shaped rock. The other great thing about Mamallapuram is
the sandy beach where fishermen leave their boats and mend their nets
and where all the children love to play. I mangaged to capture them in
watercolours.
One day we took another taxi to KANCHIPURAM where I
met an English girl Emma working for the NGO Ride. An Indian couple
have been helping get children to go to school and stop sitting under
looms where they would change the threads. I did buy some exquisite
'raw' silk as they call it in India or Shantung. Actually the silk
industry is in decline and there is more effort now to stop children
working in quarries. Kanchipuram is not only famous for silk but also
for some more incredible temples. They are all far from each other so
one needs a driver.
Another hours drive and one is in
Pondicherry, the ex French colony. The street signs are still in French
and Tamil. The sea front is made up of dangerous looking black jagged
rocks so bathing is out of the question. The old town has a lovely feel
near the sea where there are tree lined streets of old colonial houses
with boutiques dotted here and there. I enjoyed hiring an old push
bike, obviously left over from French days, and dressed it up with a
garland of jasmine to distinguish it from all the other bikes. It is
here that I found a great tailor and textile painter to help me
reproduce some of my designs.
Finally I spent a week in
Auroville, a land for all humanity, inaugurated in 1968 with 138
countries attending. Each one put a handful of their earth in a lotus
bud shaped urn. Today there are about 33 nationalities sharing the land
which covers an area of about 21sq km. Many foreigners I talked to
seemed happy to live there despite the fact that they cannot own any
land or property on it. The area is very green, what was once a dust
bowl has been transformed into a forest since over a milion trees were
planted. I saw small industries flourishing here and there in the
forest. There are over 2000 people on Auroville but there is a capacity
to accomodate 55,000, so they say...anyway the place has attracted about
900 Indian residents so far and seems very popular with Indians who
want short breaks. I stayed in a lovely guesthouse, beautifully designed
and very eco friendly with solar heated showers.
Perhaps one of
the highlights which happened at the end of my trip in Auroville, was to
see inside the Matrimandir, or the golden golf ball as I irreverently
called it. Around it there are12 stone like petals which are actually
meditation chambers (see the last sketch on this blog.) This amazing
place to meditate took over 40 years to build. Walking down a steep ramp
before ascending some steps I felt like I was entering a space ship. I
treaded gently on the soft white carpet, slowly I ascended to the
meditation chamber with a crystal ball in the middle with a shaft of
light coming down on it. I sat in silence for 10 minutes, (all coughing
and sneezing is not allowed)...and prayed that 2012 will be a wonderful
year! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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INDIA
Just to say over €18,000 was made at the Christie's auction, enough to
fund a years research in leukemia. It was an amazing evening and
wonderful to meet so many of the other participating artists. All the
works were sold. Here are a few photos for all of you who were unable to
come to remember the occasion. Now it's head down and time to pack for
India!
I leave on the second of December flying via Athens.
Gina, my architect friend is going to follow a mud brick building course
in Auroville. It is several years now since I have been back and I am
very excited. I will do my textile research and hopefully visit a few
temples as the area called Tamil Nadu is famous for its temples.
We fly directly to Madras (Chennai) and then go to Mamallapuram,
Pondicherry and finally Auroville. All just names now but I will give
you my impressions on my return (December 20th.) I will of course be
taking my sketch books as always but i will also be taking some fabrics I
have been developping here in Italy to finish as scarves. My idea is to
sell them online so I will be putiing them on my website.
Until then wishing you all a very happy festive season!
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AUTUMN
Autumn is here and I'm enjoying the fruits of summer..our luscious
purple figs and tangy bramley apples, not to mention the American style
small purple grapes. We also have some tiny sweet apples which it would
be good to know the name of. We might even have pears next year but we
need to protect it from the munching curly horned mountain goats called
'moufflone'. They have just about eaten half it's leaves. They wake us
up at night baa-ing and you can hear the clip clop of their hooves as
they run off down the street. (I fear we won't be seeing much of them
from now on as the hunting season has started.)
The exceptional
weather has meant I have been working outside, from March I have
practically never used my inside studio and am always working on our
front terrace. (There have been some exceptional sunsets at night.) I
have been able to develop some new ideas for scarves and will keep
working on them. I am also researching new painting ideas based on my
last trip tp Morocco. Last weekend I went to Freize artfair in London to
check out what is happening in the art scene! I came home feeling very
inspired.
October and November will be busy as I have 17 Japanese
designs to develop using Kimono's from the 19th Century. This will mean a
lot of work on the computer which is no bad thing as I need these
skills. What I really want is to start drawing on the ipad and iphone,
this would reduce my bills in sketchbooks which I seem to devour. Here
are some of my latest works done in Como Nuoto, the open air pool by
Lake Como. NB scroll down the photos to see all 5 images.
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SEPTEMBER
A new season is beginning and I want to get my creativity flowing again,
I went to Milanounica, a fashion fair that happens twice a year. It
gave the colour predictions for Aut/winter 2012/13. There were a lot of
fabric suppliers and accessory stands. I hope to keep my hand in
textiles and am looking to create my own scarf line sooner rather than
later.
I had a fabulous summer going from Sardinia to the island
Maddalena (between Sardinia and Corsica) and then onto Bonifacio.
Bonifacio has the most amazing white limestone cliffs. The colours of
the water and the light on the rocks really captured my imagination. I
want to paint parallel to the textiles. There are lots of ideas! i could
have spent a month sitting painting rocks! As always one needs time and
loads of art materials. How now to make sense of all the colours and
images?
One of the best things I did this summer was to buy an
underwater camera by Olympus. It was great to mess around with it and I
got some great shots-let's see where those images lead me!
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SUMMER
This year gave us more cherries than I have ever seen! Please help yourselves from this bowl!
This
is just to catch up with a few of our little trips. Paris had a huge
surprise for me. The Grand Palais has been restored and now houses the
incredible sculpture by Anish Kapoor.You can even walk inside this
gigantic aubergine. Inside it is red and I presume like being in a womb.
It is warm and everyhing is diffused with a warm glow. I was left
totally bowled over. We also saw an exhibition comparing Raoul Dufy to
his brother Jean Dufy. It was very interestng. I so identify with
Raoul..his love for movement and music. His themes are the sea, boats,
horse races, the circus and concerts...both brothers celebrate life!
Mykonos gave us a 4 days of sun and very unusual for Myknonos, no wind! I love the beaches there! Sand and gorgeous waters!
Finally
a little boat trip on Lake Como. There were the annual fireworks on
the Isola Comacina commemorating the setting alight of the island by the
Milanese in 1100's. The music was dramatic and the fireworks lasted for
ever. Even our Indian friends were impressed.
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DYE WORKSHOP
It's a while since I blogged but things have been busy. I went on my
second dying course near Biella. Casa Clementina is a new initative
where a young Italian couple invite textile experts to teach weaving and
dying (natural dying only!)
I had fun on the first course creating a
rainbow colour card using dried plants mainly. Stefano, Sissi's wife
ran the course and she produced delicious meals.
Sabina my friend
came on the second indigo course run by Axel Becker (axelfred@online.no)
from Norway. There were so many of us that I did'nt get to dye that
much so came away with a couple of bottles to experiment at home! I hope
as I said in earlier blogs to make a scarf range. This seems like a
good start.
On Axel's course we made our own blocks and stencils. We
also learnt to make the paste which has to dry for 3 weeks before dying
it with the indigo. It looks green at first then it leaves white where
it has resisted the dye.
Biella is only 2 hours away and is Italy's
home to cashmere. The area was once booming but now like in the rest of
Northern Italy textile factories stand empty. However the famous
biscuits with chocolate are still going strong..chocolate helps any way
with 'depression'!
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EASTER
I spent the most magical Easter ever in the UK...not only for the
fairytale pre-wedding euphoria but for the AMAZING hot weather. 22°C
minimum each day..my mothers' garden was in bloom..red tulips offset by
bluebells, yellow irises, pink ornamental cherry blossom....Bath at
it's best! I was inspired to paint this new canvas 30 x 100cm in
acrilics.
We couldn't have celebrated Easter in a more traditional
way. My mother blew the fresh eggs empty which we then dyed. Isabella my
Hungarian friend had dyes sent by her grandmother but food dyes would
do just as well. We of course had traditional tea with a simnel cake.
I made a ricotta cake, taught to me by Maria, a Southern Italian recipe from Basilicata:
Pastry:
200g Flour
80g Sugar
90g Margarine
2 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
Filling:
Make custard
Mix 4 tablespoons of cornflour with
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 egg yolks
Boil milk with
peel of whole lemon
Add a liitle hot milk to the custard mix and then pour into the rest of the milk. Stir until thick.
When cool mix with
500g ricotta
grated rind of 1 lemon
Cover
the pastyry with the mixture and make a lattice with pastry strips.
Bake in a hot oven (preheated to 180°C) for an hour or until golden.
Sieve icing sugar on top and decorate with RASPBERRIES.
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CHERRY BLOSSOM
April is for Asparagus...in Italy there are white and green ones, and green ones that turn to pink.
My recipe is for the green ones with whole grain rice.
Cut off the woody stems and discard.The tips should be cut and kept to add to the risotto. Steam the stalks.
Chop
1 large yellow onion and fry gently. (If you don't have a lot of time
pre-cook the rice for 10 minutes in a pressure cooker) then add to the
onions, otherwise fry the dry rice with the onions.
In another
saucepan heat the organic vegetable cube with water and when dissolved
pour onto the rice with a ladle, keeping the rice covered with liquid at
all times. Use also the water left over from steamaing the stems! The
tips can be mixed in about 15 minutes after proceeding to cook.
Liquidize
the stems and add to the risotto near the end of the cooking time. Once
all the liquid has been absorbed stir in some good quality olive oil
and sprinkle freshly ground pepper to taste. Bon appetit!
Our
cherry blossom was spectacular this month and sadly it is already over.
The really hot spell brought the flowers out early and the branches were
so thickly laden that you could'nt see the leaves. Next year I hope to
do a cherry blossom workshop, but the question is when will they
flower?!
Lastly we enjoyed our afternoon at the Milan design week
visiting the Triennale where there was an exhibition celebrating 50
years of design. To finish up with we ate at our favourite restaurant on
the Navigli called Ponte Rosso. NB Their pistachio cake is to die for
served with zabaglione cream!
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MURAL IN COMO
Spring is here! We have even celebrated Indian Holi, it's time to have
fun with colour! In India people throw colours all over each other, we
just restrained ourselves and put a bit of pink pigment on Anand and
Poorvaja! I had to let rip though and use more colour than that so I
painted a panel for Luca's new office by the Duomo in Como. It was fun
to work BIG! 2m x 3.6m.....I was inspired by street art and graffiti.
Being a marketing and communication agency it was fit to use old posters
from the 30's through to the present day. I used ice-cream containers
to mix the colours and as always the desire to eat the colours came to
mind!
Luca and his partner Davide come up with some great ideas for
work but also for leisure..their work tables with just the addition of a
table tennis net became the central focus for their opening party as
people challenged each other to a game. If you want to see more of what
they do have a click on their website www.moma.co.it
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VALS - SWITZERLAND
For three hours we were cocooned in our metal shell hurtling through a
landscape half hidden by cloud. (Our faithful Fiat Punto is still with
us!) A hint of Spring now and then, yellow balls of forcythia, golden
daffodils and new born lambs. Finally we arrive in Vals, a tiny village
and thermal baths. The hotel is a made up of 3 huge white and blue
modern buildings set among the lanky pine trees. I am trasported
silently up 7 floors in a silver box, a super advanced lift, and walk
out onto a sky blue carpet across a bridge suspended between 2
buildings.
Treading on velvety slippers we make our way to the
thermal baths on the sixth floor. Peter Zumthor, the celebrated Swiss
architect has created the most spititual and zen-like recreation water
area. The simple and pure lines using local grey/black stone contrast
with the jade colour of the water. You slip into the silky warm water
and can stay outside for hours, never feeling cold. The mountain slopes
now just a little patchy with the last vestiges of snow offer a tranquil
backdrop to the place. You can pick out a local walking a dog but
otherwise there is very little movement. The whole experience is about
slowing down....
After dinner in Chessy restaurant we dived under our
soft sheets to avoid the chilly air...we were in a peaceful state but
turning on CNN we heard the news that the Americans, French and British
would support an no-fly zone over Libya with military action....
The
next day the sun shone and we explored the little village, admiring the
delicate wooden façades of the houses, made with wooden fish like
scales! Our hotel Alpina turned out to have been restored by another
famous architect called Caminada. I would definitely recommend it
perhaps more so than staying at the thermal baths as our room was much
larger and more comfortable. The village had just one baker and one
cheese shop but with such a choice of homemade yogurt! You could hear
the goats bleating outside and taste the wonderful cheeses. There was
even fresh milk straight from the cows! Definitely Switzerland has some
amazing brown breads and so you can imagine our car was laden with
goodies from fresh butter to local honey and cheeses too! We were lucky
it wasn't summer yet as we had quite a way to drive back and no cool
box..
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BOLLY-YOG
March continues with the exploration of Indian culture. Poorvaja is
teaching us Bolly-yog...she starts her class with Yoga and then
continues into her dance class. The dance is inspired by a song about a
beautiful girl who loses her ear-rings in a market. The dance
accompanies the words with movements portraying her story.
and also see it on youtube -aaja nachle.
Poorvaja and her husband have just celebrated a special day for married couples. She wore a yellow thread that the husband ties it around the wife's neck...symbolizing the bond between them. She dressed up in a kamiz (top) and salwar (trousers) with a gorgeous dupatta (scarf). It is great that for most celebrations they draw a picture or mandala (or kolum, Tamil word for it,) usually with rice flour on the ground but here Poorvaja improvised and drew one with a biro on paper!
I am working at the moment on a mural 2 x 3.6m for my husband Luca's office..it has to ready by the 25th of March when he has his office warming party. I will post the final result!
Otherwise Spring is the moment to sow seeds, wether they be ideas or real seeds. Lisa Weinberg my Dutch friend and I sowed carrots, zucchini, potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes and salad. We also experimented with some flowers.
This is also a period when I am thinking up new projects and hope to work more on my textiles and paintings. My enthusiam for painting is shared by 2 very young artists, Rebecca who is 3 and a half and Carolina who's 4 and a half. Here are flowers by Rebecca. These 2 budding artists have a weekly painting class with me.
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AN INDIAN FEBRUARY
Shakespeare said said 'if music be the food of love then play on'..but I
say if food gives the mood for love then eat! Valentine's day is always
a good day to bake so I tried my hand at some cookies made with some
chopped peel from my mum's marmalade; the result..have already made a
second batch and more are requested!
We have an Indian couple staying
with us, Poorvaja and Anand. She had the same idea as me to put her
heart on a plate...see her chapatti with strawberries on the photo. I
just used raspberries. Indians and Italians love home cooked food so
Poorvaja and I share this passion. Her husband, Anand, had his dad,
uncle and cousins over and Poorvaja cooked Rajma, a red bean dish served
with tumeric basmati rice.
If you feel like trying your hand at either the cookies or the Indian dish here are the recipes:
Irma's Marmalade Cookies
1 cup Margarine
1cup unrefined sugar
2 cups kamut flour
2 egg yolks
juice and rind 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon chopped thick cut marmalade rind in tiny chunks
Cream
sugar and margarine together. Add yolks and orange juice and peel. Fold
in flour and baking powder. Leave in freezer 15 minutes to chill, then
form small balls. Flatten them on a baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes
in an oven pre-heated to 200°C
Poorvaja's Rajma...5 spice red bean dish
soak beans in water with salt overnight and pressure cook until soft.
1 yellow onion
2 tomatoes
a few green chilies (Indian chilies are very hot)
fresh ginger
dahnia-cumin
tumeric
coriander
red chilie powder
garamasala
Blend the chilies, onion and ginger to make a paste
Fry
half teaspoon cumin 'dahnia' and 1 teaspoon of tumeric (this keeps the
spices from burning and gives the wonderful yellow colour to the food)
and a teaspoon of coriander powder. Add the chopped onions.
Cook
the onions until golden then add the chopped tomatoes, 1 1/2 teaspoons
red chilie powder and 2 teaspoons of garamasala. Lastly mix in the
beans.
I microwave my basmati rice, 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water. Full power on the microwave for 15 minutes.
Poorvaja fries her cumin seeds in oil then adds turmeric, she also adds peas before adding the washed rice and water.
*see the photo of the essential spices for Indian cusine.
central spice is: fenugreek (aromatic leaves of cloverlike plant with white flowers, Tamil name)
staring with red chilie powder and going clockwise the spices are:
cumin
tumeric
mustard seed
coriander powder
garam
masala (a mix of all the spices or masala's, masala meaning mixed spice
from Northern India, name has Hindi and Urdu origins)
Poorvaja's tips:
add lemon to make less spicy
add potatoes to make less salty
(Gujurati's add sugar to make sweeter)
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LONDON
This blog has been a bit slack..sorry if I have not logged in for a
while. I had a wonderful trip to London where the museums are always
inspiring. First I saw the Tigers in Asian Art exhibition at Asia House.
There were 2 rooms full of miniatures mainly from India and China.
There were Japanese woodblock prints from the V and A and one incredible
contemporary piece by Wang Jin. It was a transparent plastic coat with
white tigers embroidered on it in the shape of an Emperors robe. (Wang
is also a conceptual performance artist.) The artist mocks the the
Cultural revolution's goal to destroy the memory of traditional and
artistic values. The rich yellow traditional silk has been replaced by
plastic, symbolizing the new consumerism of modern CHINA. There were
even some Tibetan tiger rugs from Mimi Liptons collection. I wish I
could have bought one..some were on sale!
The V and A had the
Imperial Chinese robes on display from the Forbidden City. I was looking
for inspiration for a new textile range. Going to LIBERTY'S department
store is always a joy. There of course you can lose yourself in the
world of scarves. Now it's up to me!
Back in Como I am teaching
ENGLISH in a printing factory. Here I am surrounded by scarves...so it's
just a question of setting time aside now and getting my ideas printed
out. There are so many themes I love. One day a week should be dedicated
to this. ........mmm
It was a great time to be in London. I arrived
on February 3rd, the start of Chinese New Year. On the following Sunday a
trip to China Town in Soho was rewarded with us seeing the dragon dance
infront of the shops trying to catch an orange hanging at the doorway. I
hope this sighting brings me luck!
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PARIS IN JANUARY
As I said in my last blog I am 'la Beffana' or witch in Italy, having
been born on January 6th instead in France it is Epiphany, the day of
the 3 kings. I love to eat the Galette des Roix and was fortunate enough
to be in Paris to eat one! They are made from pastry with a sort of
sweet almond centre with a tiny ceramic king inside. We ate in this
fairytale like breakfast room which is near Chez Paul in Rue du Lappe.
Chez Paul is one of my favourite restaurants in Paris...where you can
eat plenty of French food and not leave hungry! My 'soupe au cresson'
and grilled sardines left me so full I had to forego pudding. The
waitress in the photo is the blonde owners daughter.
Eating was not
the only reason to be in Paris but to see David Hockney's FRESH FLOWERS
EXHIBITION at the YSL/ Pierre Bergé Foundation. It was a strange
experience to see all his work displayed on iphones and ipads. Somehow
the images lacked depth but I loved the luminosity. So it is time to
invest in new technology.
I was also thrilled also to meet a textile
designer who hand paints on silk. She reminded me how in my early
twenties I used to paint on fabric in Paris. I think this might be the
start of my relaunching my textile ideas on fabric. Now I will try my
hand at scarves again. I painted for Sabina Fay-Braxton who made short
lengths for catwalk runways, in particular Ungaro. So now perhaps it is
time to look at my Hungarian roots and see if any new textile
inspiration will come from it.
Coming back to fresh flowers Luca, my
husband gave me this gorgeous bunch of ranucolas. It was amazingly warm
enough to work outside and so I did my first piece of work on our
terrace this year, it's January after all!
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A SPARKLING 2011
Hydrogen filled balloons, mistletoe and a candles everywhere...Our hall
with its huge white mirror was bedecked with fake icicles and real ivy,
the balloons with their long trailing ribbons created a magic
forest...it was party time and we wanted to live it up! The capone Thank
God were a great success (see previous blog), although Luca had to sew
them up as the skin was so tough. First he had to skewer the skin before
using a darning needle and double cotton thread. The animals were
bursting after being in the oven for about 2 and a half hours. Needless
to say everyone was bursting too at the end of a 3 course meal, with a
chestnut pavlova, fruit salad with pomegranate and walnuts and choux
buns to end with, especially as we also had lentils near midnight. (One
eats them In the North of Italy on New Year's Eve to bring one luck and
money as the lentils look like coins.)
Tomorrow is Epifania or the
day of the 'befana', witch...It is a holiday in Italy. The witch flies
on her her broomstick the night of the 5th with a sack full of sweets.
Children will get their stockings filled with 'carbone' a sweet that
looks like coal. It used to be just black but now it comes in other
colours too. Originally you got real coal if you had been bad during the
year and sweets if you had been good. The tradition seems to be
pre-Christian. The good witch could be seen as a symbol for the old year
and in some places witch like figures are burnt on a big fire. So now a
new year and so much to look forward too......and many new creative
projects.
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CHRISTMAS 2010
This is it…we have finished another year and we have had yet another Italian Christmas..mmmm not at all what I used to have back in England so I have to cook if I want turkey. Christmas is not for the fainthearted or vegetarians..it is highly meat based
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WINTER IN COMO
After many days of snow and working hard in my my studio, I have
produced many new pieces. I am very inspired at the moment to paint
animals. I tried my first leopard on a sea coloured background. I need
to use turquoise. I keep buying turquoise clothes and accesories so it's
normal that it should come out in my work!
This past weekend the
sun shone gloriously after another heavy snowfall. Luca, my husband and
I went down to Como to get my snow tyres fixed and took advantage of
the wait to walk by the lake....the seagulls were whirling in the crisp
air. We ate at L'Osteria del Gallo in Via Vitani, our favourite
restaurant. Giuseppe the owner is obsessed with cockerels and has a huge
collection. I ate pumpkin ravioli but I am sure when I try my hand at
them next week that they will be better. I will keep you posted!
On
the subject of food this brings us to the delicate subject of the
Italian Christmas cake. The Italians eat panettone which I think is like
eating cotton wool personally although I like to pick out the 'canditi'
or candied mixed peel, however there is also Pan D'Oro and La
Veneziana. The mountians surrounding the lake look like a Pan D'Oro cake
which is brown with a dusting of icing sugar. It is more of a sponge
cake. La Veneziana is like the Panettone but without the raisins and
covered in crytalized sugar and almonds. I hope wherever you are you
have a 'dolce' Christmas!
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LA FABBRICA DEL COLORE... COLOUR FACTORY
The Colour Factory or Fabbrica del Colore is the name I am giving to my
home in Brunate 700m above Lake Como. It is here that most of my
creations take place. Our magical place looks onto Monte Rosa, the
mountain that turns pink first thing in the morning with the rising sun.
The house can be reached by a very steep mountain road wth hair pin
bends..not for the faint hearted, or by funicular, the easier option. It
takes just 7 minutes to get to lake Como from Brunate.
The house
has a secret garden behind it. They say when it was built in 1906 that
the owner was an architect. Not knowing what to do with extra bits of
building material he made a baroque garden. Water once flowed from the
grotto and tumbled down the rocks. The sweeping staircase remains and
the hanging balcony.
This garden is a great source of inspiration and
loved by my husband particularly who can never plant enough roses. My
cat Frisette enjoys it, although all the stone steps are hard on her 20
years. We grow a lot of fruit and next year I will try my hand at
vegetables.
I travel quite a lot so the inside of the house is full
of colourful pieces of fabrics brought back from India or Morocco and my
paintings which are inspired by these trips. The house has become my
own personal gallery as the very long staircase and large landing give
me plenty of space to hang my works.
Recently we had a huge
snowfall and our garden became a winter wonderland. I ventured out into
the virgin snow, the first one to disturb the quiet hush. The place was
unrecognizable- trees boughed to the ground with their heavy load of
snow...I crept beneath them, wading up to my knees in the white powder.
Now and again a robin or blackbird would fly past, their whirring wings
breaking the silence in this frozen world. Our terrace became an
inviting scene for a theatrical outdoor party. The table seemed like a
huge cake with thick white icing and the chairs had fluffy white
cushions. The deck chair had a thick white blanket to lie on....who
would have cared to join me for a glass of hot wine?! Next time!
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© 2024 Irma Kennaway
info@irmakennaway.com
Website by Eden Design
Privacy Policy • Cookie Policy