There is a group of American artists working in Barga this week as part of project with the artist Brian Keeler.
Brian has made the landscape and cities of Italy one of his prime subjects over the last ten years and conducted landscape classes here in Barga in the past, during spring of 2004 and 2006.
This time, as you can hear in the short interview below, he is back in the city not just looking at landscapes but is also including the human figure with a life painting class held each morning in the main room of Casa Cordati here in Barga Vecchia.
Brian Keeler was born in 1953 and he lives in his hometown of Wyalusing, Pa. USA.
He primarily devotes his time to painting landscapes, still lifes, figures, and portraits in oil, pastel and watercolour.
His oil paintings are often begun with quick pencil sketches or studies done in pastel or with oil, usually in a smaller scale on location. Keeler then goes back to his studio and creates larger format oils based on these first-hand compositions and from photos.
He feels that there is something irreplaceable about being outside and experiencing nature first-hand while creating paintings in a single sitting. Feeling the air, hearing the ambient sounds of nature and even the background sounds of traffic, lawnmowers and people, seeing the effects of light and serendipitous occurrences of nature all contribute to an emotional connection to his subjects. One of the artists main attractions to any given landscape is the quality of light and the play of light on fields, clouds and topography.
His site containing other examples of his work can be seen here
