Video: JPII's Letter to Artists

Artist Website

I finally got around to making an artist website.  Here's the link:

http://www.shanasmithfineart.com/

Figure study in clay

Here is a clay figure study I did a few months ago.  Since then I have added drapery, I'll add pictures of the finished Marian sculpture once I have them.  The figure is less than half life-size.  

Tempera painting: Madonna col Bambino

Here's a tempera painting I completed a while back.

Marian sculpture photos

 

Here are some better photos of the Marian sculpture I did a while ago.  Since my last post it has been fired in the kiln.   

 

 

 

Beato Angelico study

Here's an egg tempera study of Beato Angelico from a little while back.  My friend Fernando helped me a bit with refining it. 

 

 

detail:

 

San Giovanni Battista art show

Here are some pictures from the opening of a St. John the Baptist themed art exhibit in the days around his feast day, June 24th.  Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence, his feast day is marked by festivities in the city and fireworks at night.   In the exhibit work from first year students, I being one of them, who have continued to do a six month tirocinio or apprenticeship in different bottegas and organizations around the city. The Cardinal of Florence was there for the opening of the show.

 

I did a small oil painting of St. John the Baptist (I posted a picture below) using traditional symbolic elements.  I depicted him holding a banner supported by a rod which reads "Ecce Agnus Dei" or "behold the Lamb of God".  This signifies the role of St. John the Baptist, he is the "voice that cries out in the desert 'Prepare the way of the Lord.'" (John 1: 23).  He is wearing camel hair to signify his penitential life out in the wilderness covered by a red drapery to symbolize his martyrdom.

 

Pictures were taken by Alberto Macherelli, one of the apprentices.  

 

St. Cecilia

Here's a painting I completed a while back of St. Cecilia. My second painting with egg tempera.

Preparatory Drawing

Here's a drawing for an egg tempera painting I'm currently working on:

First Tempera Painting

Here's my first tempera painting and it's preparatory drawing from a few months back. Now I have someone teaching me how to work with tempera, so I'm improving. I am liking tempera painting. Also in the process I am preparing my own wooden panels, which is a satisfying thing to learn. With the painting I'm currently working on I'm preparing my own paint with pigments I buy (with egg tempera it's really easy). I believe it has been valuable for me to learn how to make a painting from "scratch" in this way.

Via Crucis

For our final project of the first year of studies at my school, the students worked on different projects. I was assigned to work with my friend, Fernando, to design and create a stations of the cross, or a via crucis, in terra cotta. I designed several of the stations, helped to build up the figures, worked on the fabric, and did the letters. Fernando designed many of the stations, worked on building up the figures and brought each of the pieces up to a finished state. The stations have now been installed in the new church of Concordia Sulla Secchia, a town in northern Italy that was devastated by an earthquake. To check out some of Fernando's work you can visit his blog.