Lorraine Capparell: “Montepulciano dei miei Occhi”
The artist Lorraine Capparell sent us a review of the exhibition “Montepulciano dei miei Occhi ” which took place from October 16 to October 18 at Galleria dell’Opio, 27 .
A review of Lorraine Capparell’s Exhibition at Montepulciano, by Andrew Stewart MacKay – MA (St-And) MA (Lond) MSc (Glas) PhD (Leid) FRSA – British art historian & Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts
Lorraine Capparell’s delightfully unobtrusive showing of watercolours inspired by her visits to Montepulciano belies an abundant passion for its sensuous landscape and vibrant history. Taut compositions possessed of a tangible sense for Renaissance symmetry and colour are allowed to breath joyously in their simple, unframed mounts upon the rough-harled vernacular walls of the Galleria dell’Opio 27; intimate windows onto vertiginous topography which appear to hint at something hidden, merely waiting to be discovered.
Striking in these watercolours is what one might call a ‘layered vision’; each image hums with an air of expectancy, meaning and symbolism. These thoughtful, and apparently static, images gradually reveal themselves to concern symbolic movement: overgrown pathways, cloistered spaces, openings, closings, circular beginnings and ends. Journeys start from home and involve a changed return. For me, the moving and regenerative ‘Della Finestra’ is a particular favourite – an atmospheric landscape with an unusually low horizon; here we long to become ‘of
the soil’, to decipher the rhythmic patterns of an enigmatic sky. Each of these touching watercolours represent what the English novelist E. M. Forster once called the ‘significant moment’; the pivot upon which life’s journey may turn.
Ms Capparell possesses a powerful sympathy for the mystical element in life; she is alive in response – her antennae is attuned as it were – to fleeting moments of mystical revelation. The local Etruscan landscape is layered with folk symbolism and meaning and this has not been lost on Ms Capparell. Indeed, it has drawn out here a fresh well-spring of creativity which may only be in its infancy. I look forward to seeing more of Ms Capparell’s ‘layered vision’ in paint – to feel again the intensity of insight already so palpable in her sculpture.
Thanks to Lorraine for this story ! You can see her artworks at: www.skymuseum.com
