New Works by Michael Cartwright at La Rondine gallery

After twelve years, Michael is again carving marble. We had a car accident twelve years ago and Mike’s right foot was badly injured, forcing him to stop carving stone. He painted instead and this was not a bad thing because he has developed his wonderful sense of colour in a way that he may never

Earth and Sky

Rover Thomas in the desert making art that is of the earth, simple, iconic masterpieces, representing deeply the land he was, he not separate, but a part of a whole intimately felt universe.  Traveling overhead in planes, peering from tiny windows many times over the years, looking down into the land of Australia, seeing the

Ronald Farren-Price plays Liszt at the Bagni di Lucca Casino

The Bagni di Lucca Art Festival has brought into our wee beautiful town some of the most amazing international talent that it has seen for many years.  Bagni di Lucca is known for its many famous personages.  It is known for all the incredible writers and musicians and visual artists that have come here through

The Best Gnocchi Recipe Ever……….. a secret from Montefegatesi

On one of those magnificent lunches we were invited to during the sculpture symposium, we ate a most delicate and delicious homemade gnocchi at the home of Candido Martinelli in Montefegatesi.  Candido is one of the artists at La Rondine Gallery. So rapturous of the melt in the mouth texture and yummy homemade tomato sauce,

Exhibition of Marble sculptures from Bagni di Lucca Sculpture Symposium

The sculpture symposium is over.  The artists, one by one are leaving.  Sad to see them go.  They became like family, bonded by big family meals, heart to hearts and animated discussion.  Their works were exhibited in ‘La Cantina’ and garden in Ponte a Serraglio on the weekend in the golden ambience of a summer’s

Sculpture Symposium in Bagni di Lucca

Every day since the first of July you wander over the passerella to the Villa Fiori gardens and you hear the musical tapping of metal on stone.  The sculpture symposium, one of the many wonderful events of the Bagni di Lucca Art Festival, has seen the works of five sculptors evolving and ‘becoming’ over the

The Photography of Ella Haller Zwierzchowska at La Rondine Gallery

Colour must be the story of India.  I wanted to see more.  I wanted to be overpowered by it as you are when you go to India.  The taste of it was yummy, a glow in the light, exotic fabrics edged in gold, the haze of dust, the flamboyant twists and turns of architecture, crumbling…The

First exhibition of the season in Bagni di Lucca

The first exhibition of the season at La Rondine Gallery opens next Friday night, 28th June, with the photographic works of Ella Haller Zwierzchowska.  If you are nearby or in town, come and celebrate!  

A Few Amazing Hours in Istanbul

We are back in Bella Italia and still I haven’t posted on a few beautiful hours we spent in Istanbul enroute from Hong Kong to Venice.  We had a twelve hour stopover that allowed us the time to ‘feel’ Istanbul once again.  We arrived there on the first day of the   protests in Gezi

Hong Kong Basel Art Fair, 2013

Hong Kong Basel Art Fair opening on Wednesday 22nd May was an event heralding a lot of great art.  We felt so happy to have seen so much work that was worthy of a museum, even though a lot of the art is no longer contemporary.  The fair seemed to create a historical context for