Category: Archive

 

Excerpt from email

From: anne.masters@apex.net.au
Subject: Fwd: Roma – food glorious food
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 18:28:39 +1000

Hello everyone,

Well we’ve been too busy eating to send an email!  The food in Italy has been fantastic and it helps that Adam has a gorgeous wife to boot…she goes to the markets, buys fresh food, cooks dishes to rival an Italian mama and does it all in style (as in new outfits 😉 Heh! Heh!  Seriously, I have had fun buying fresh ricotta from the cheese man and fruit and vegetables at the markets which are about 4 tram stops away.  We are going there this morning to get some more food as tomorrow nights dinner is roast pork fillet with rosemary and fennel.

 

I’ve really enjoyed cooking food and made my first risotto with red wine and mushrooms.  Yum! Yum! and leftovers for lunch.  Yesterday, I came across a patisserie and the little pastries were to die for.  All miniature choux like pastry filled with creams of some sort.  They were 24 euros for 500grams.  I had to try and figure out cost for say 2 but once asked I got flustered and said doo e pistachio per favore.  When I went to pay with 20 euros I got back 18.90 change.  How embarrassing!  I felt like a dork.  I should have asked for more.  Adam wants me to go back and get at least 100 grams to make up for my quelle horror (he secretly wants to devour them all when I told him that the pistachio cream/custard ooozed out when I gobbled one of them down!).  The funny thing was when I bit into the 2nd one it oozed down my face and people looked at me like some nutcase.

 

Horror of horrors as I wiped my face and I had this flashback to when I was 21 in Paris with Fiona and we were tut tutted by this older French lady for eating in public – “French women do not eat in public…go home young girls!”.  Another die for eating experience was the special pastry tarts I bought which unravelled perfectly like a peeled orange to reveal ricotta honey filling which we devoured one morning for breakfast.  Pix attached for your enjoyment 😉 Along with the food I have enjoyed trying my una caffe latte and trying to look local by standing at the bar and drinking it and chatting with the barista.  One asked if I wanted mine facaldo and I was a bit confused.  He pointed at himself and winked and the lady next to me roared with laughter and she says he wants to know if you want it cold or hot like him!! Heh! Heh! laughs all around and I settle in.

Earlier this year, the Canberra Potters’ Society featured exhibits by
some of its studio tenants: Chris Harford, Maryann Mussared, Sarah
Walker, Julie Day-Lewis and Anne Masters.

 

 

 

 

 

One of my art theory colleagues and aspiring painter, Luiza gave me a beautiful drawing book, ink bottle and pen to encourage me to draw while overseas in Italy last year.  These are just a few of the drawings I did.  I can’t believe its now been nearly 7 months and I haven’t had the time to sit somewhere quietly and draw.  One of my resolutions this year and need to get cracking!
29 June 2011 – I attempt my first drawing and choose Galleria Borghese.  If you only have one museum to visit in Roma – this is the one!  It has the most stunning collection of Renaissance artworks and housed in the most beautiful villa and surrounded by a beautiful park.  As I draw, children skate past, older couples hold hands, a man sits next to me and feeds the stupid pigeons and dogs take the lead as their look a like owners prance along.  A really nice way to spend the day and feel less of a tourist.

While Adam was working I had to fill my days with walking the streets of Roma, go shopping, eating and visit museums, galleries, parks etc.  But there were days when I stayed home…the heat at 38 degrees plus was full-on…and one day drew the view from our studio apartment.  An older couple would water their balcony garden (where the white flowers are popping out) everyday – he in singlet and she with rollers in her hair.  Not quite as romantic as Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter from “A room with a view” but sweet enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Excerpt from email

Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 6:28 PM

Subject: Fwd: Roma – food glorious food

” … Anyway, sights, sights and more sights.  While Adam is working I’ve had to entertain myself and so far have managed to visit Villa Farnesina which has the most beautiful frescoes by Raphael, Baldassare Peruzzi and more Italian artists.  I’ve been to Orto Botanica which has 20 different sights to visit within the gardens – roses, japanese garden, medicine plant maze, bamboo forest and even a Wollemia Nobilus from good ole Australia.  I run into the gardeners and have a laugh trying to converse.  They introduce me to Pierre from France but I can call him Peter…wink! wink! I laugh and give them big smiles.  Chris, you’ll be pleased to know that there was no swinging of the hair…moi was a tad perspired under her hat and wasn’t going to give that one away.  I decided to draw Corsoni Greenhouse as Queen Christina of Sweden used the basins for her stay 1659-1689 at Villa Riario now Palazzo Corsini.  I also read somewhere that she entertained many lovers during her stay and reckoned she must have needed those basins for luxuriating in after her many conquests … “

Botanicus perfecto – as you can see from the photo below this was a beautiful specimen in flowering on a hot summers day and a perfect excuse to draw in the shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve since discovered that you can buy the plant at one of our local nurseries and its called “Purple Caneflower”.  Guess what I’ll be planting in time for our Spring….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As previously mentioned in Announcements, I was the lucky recipient of the inaugural EASS (Emerging Artist Support Scheme) artist-in-residence and been busy working away in Studio 3 since the middle of January this year.

The studio is like 5 times the space I had at the ANU Ceramics workshop!  I nearly fell over when I walked in.  So much room and luckily only 6 weeks to restrain myself from using every shelf!  I’ve been working on a project which I proposed as part of the application process – make a small body of work, investigate a new form and decorate the form with similar techniques used in my latest studio research project.

The project is about to come to an end and I’m in the process of preparing a presentation to members of the society.  It will be a great opportunity to show my latest work and what processes/research has gone into the beginning of a what I hope to realise is a long-term project.