Large, rounded, and gentle in form, the Fabbri Amarena jar floats like a reassuring buoy. In this painting by Luca Giovagnoli, it is like a maternal figure in a black bathing costume, an image that has all the freshness of a snapshot rediscovered in a family album. The result is a surreal vision rendered with the painterly skillof yesteryear. Twenty years on into his career, this Rimini-born artist still takes great pleasure in constructing his pictorial supports himself, applying meticulous skill to the process. The hemp is drawn across thin canvas and then covered with a generous layer of size to smooth out the natural unevenness in the surface. Giovagnoli does not make preparatory sketches because it is his state of mind at the time which suggests his palette.
Hence the acrylics are mixed with earth, sand and natural powders to create a granulated impasto that can be scratched and scraped; can be poured or lightly dripped onto the canvas. The whole appears to be entirely casual and yet each move is carefully studied to add to the overall harmony of the end result. The technique is quick, fluid and dynamic as the painting must never be allowed to dry, nor the size to set; matter must remain soft and ductile. The artist paints following a recipe that he feels in his blood; innate awareness plays the same sort of role as it does in Fabbri’s creation of their Amarena.