Soula Mantalvanos | Artist, designer & gallerist Melbourne Australia
Soula Mantalvanos | Artist, designer & gallerist
Italy is never enough for me. There’s not enough Burrata, cicchetti, grilled squid, cornetti, salata mistas, Prosecco (hello Franciacorta!), tartare, overall exceptional hospitality, and that Olive oil – I still can’t believe they leave the bottle on the table. I don’t get enough of searching for the next Via or Vicolo, the next urban, hillside or valley scene, [...]
That translates as a casual hello from where I write in beautiful Italy. To be more specific, I’m in Cortona in the magnificent Tuscan hilly home of dear friends… having been welcomed back again. Where would artists be without their dear friends and patrons? While Theo and I take an annual break and I gather some new sketches [...]
I'm settling into the routine now: walk, draw, eat, drink, rest, and start again. This is what I like to call work/life balance. As I mentioned in Phase One Italy: Nurture, an artist never stops working, but it's a joy in this environment, especially if/when the work created sells. Some added bliss to this trip is that I can enjoy short journeys, whether by car or Italy's fabulous rail system. For example, Montepulciano is a 40-minute drive from Cortona, where Theo and I are based. I can't get to Melbourne from Queenscliff in that time, and the road is nowhere near as picturesque or stimulating.
After two years of trying to realise this Italian adventure, we arrived in Milan on September 5th, albeit with heavy hearts from the loss of our mother (my mother-in-law) and, soon after, one of my dearest uncles. Feeling far from celebratory, we decided to skip Venice. We thought to first nurture ourselves, so we took a quick Milan tram ride for an espresso in the glorious Marchesi in Milan's Galerie Vitoria Emanuele II.
Who would have thought staring at the back of an easel could be so inspiring! Not only inspiring, we were enthralled in this simple form of art on the eve that The Australian's Sharon Verghis was publishing her article that questioned whether drawing was dead. From an artist's perspective, Soula particularly felt her own practise validated witnessing the push, pull and struggle [...]
How do you communicate Art, Design & Chronic Pain. Graphis Advertising competition 2013. Medium: Photographs printed on cotton rag paper, pencil drawn on by Soula and then rephotographed. Photography: Marija Ivkovic Marionette: Colleen Burke Vote for us: www.graphis.com
