Marc Dalessio – ARTFOODHOME.COM

“Street in Korcula” by Marc Dalessio – Image: Ann Long

First, I want to mention the obvious. The look of my site has changed a wee bit. I think I have made it cleaner and easier to read. You aren’t on the wrong site, it’s me… I’ve just changed things a bit, let me know how you like (or don’t like) what you see! Personally, I love the orange vs. the red… but that’s me! My goal was to make it clear so you can see all that’s going on! Ok, enough admin stuff… on to the post!

Marc Dalessio is quite the artist AND quite the traveler. His website is so interesting, he shows his paintings, gives tips, talks about upcoming workshops (Swiss Alps!), check it out! He’s got lots of cool tips (i.e. what he does with his brushes when done painting). Definitely interesting whether you’re an artist or not! I was reading about where he lives between Florence, Italy (oh!!) and Zagreb, Croatia and travels quite a bit of the time to places all over the world, then I saw he was having a show at the Ann Long Fine Art Gallery (Charleston, SC) for the month of November 2012! So… if you’re in the area, you know where to go to see his work in person! From Ann Long Fine Art:

What’s so fascinating is that for each group of paintings you can see a clear difference in the color palette. For example, Italy the colors were much warmer. Marc has a clean painting style, I don’t know how to explain it… like his brush never gets dirty or mixed with a color he doesn’t want it to get mixed with. Hmmm, must be nice, ha ha…

Here’s a blip about Marc from the Ann Long Fine Art Gallery:

Marc Dalessio, born in 1972 in Los Angeles, California, is a naturalistic painter who at a young age has established himself as one of the foremost plein-air painters working today.

Marc’s artistic training began at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he majored in biology and fine art. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1992, he moved to Florence, Italy and trained as a portraitist for four years under Charles Cecil at his atelier. Charles H. Cecil Studios is a school of fine art that offers a thorough training in the traditional techniques of naturalistic drawing and painting. Upon completion of his first year, Marc was awarded a full scholarship, and after finishing the full course, he became an advanced painting instructor at the school.

Articles Featuring Marc Dalessio
American Artist, 12/09 (pdf)

Currently the landscape painting instructor at the Florence Academy of Art, Marc keeps a studio in Florence, Italy but travels for much of the year. Recent painting expeditions have included Greece and Albania, Morocco, Rajasthan, Sicily, Kenya, and the Caribbean. His works are in private collections worldwide.

Did you check out the article that was in American Artist? Very good! – Catch you back here tomorrow!

A sketch by Marc Dalessio – Image: Marc Dalessio Facebook

What a fabulously loose painting. It’s got so many features that I absolutely adore… the masts against a cloudy sky painted thickly, the loosely painted buildings in the distance, the shadows on the dock, the bright white of the boat deck. This “sketch” was done in Bergen (Norway). The pictures of Bergen are stunning, it looks like a great place to paint! Marc has a great website, so check it out… I enjoyed reading “about” Marc. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I read about an artist and it’s creative and interesting. Personally I think that “About” the artist should contain either thoughts on the way they paint or their subjects or who their inspiration comes from or something personal, and not just a bulleted list of achievements (I never read those, especially the really long ones, sigh). Those are ok too, at the end, but I like to hear where the artist lives, and it’s nice if they mention family, pets, places, other artists, that’s very cool… Here is a blip about Marc from his website (actually his blog, which is a good read), and I think you’ll have to agree:

Welcome to my blog. I’m 37 years old as I write this, and I’ve been drawing and painting ever since I can remember.

I was born in Los Angeles in 1972. From the age of 6 to 10 I lived in the Fiji Islands where my father was a regional director of the Peace Corps. The beauty of Fiji and my native California instilled in me a love of the natural world.

For the last 17 years I’ve lived in Florence, Italy, though I spend a few months every year painting in the US. At present I have a beautiful 19th-century painting studio in Piazza Donatello and the use of a farmhouse near Tavarnelle val di Pesa in Tuscany which I use as a base for landscape work, as well as teaching small workshops in the summers. I also teach a plein air landscape course at the Florence Academy of Art in the spring.

Every winter I travel with a group of like-minded plein air painters to warmer climates to keep working outside. Past destinations have included Kenya, India, Greece and Albania, the Caribbean, Morocco, and this year, Myanmar.

I created this blog to share information about techniques and materials as well as to keep people updated on my paintings and exhibitions. Your comments are appreciated.

Thanks for visiting,

Marc

Catch you back here tomorrow!