ENGLAND - Francescaorfino-it18-10-2020
ENGLAND
A moment of intimate reflection and some of her verses, just a few, allow us to tiptoe into the world of Francesca Orfino, spectators fascinated by such truth and delicacy.
"Let us love it and accept it with all its many thorns and with the few joys that shine in the brightness of the sun, in the fertility of this hospitable land and in the seas which, bathing us, offer infinite sweetness".
A few verses in which Francesca Orfino accepts life and everyday reality, with simplicity and purity, without complications.
And so is her art which, as often happens, naturally and mysteriously expresses the artist's soul.
Simple and pure, absolutely spontaneous.
Her maturity - she was born in Gioia del Colle (Bari) in 1955 - has not deprived her of authenticity and freshness at all.
As Nunzia Bianco Sala observes, "her canvases, certainly more expertly constructed and refined than those of yesterday, have not lost vitality and immediacy".
Spontaneity that recalls the wonder of the children that Orfino loves to portray and for whom she organizes painting courses.
She who, as a child, instead of having fun with toys, drew and created paper dresses. "I remember being eight or nine years old when I decorated the white tiles of my mother's kitchen with all kinds of fruit."
Another clear memory is that of elementary school: the after-school teacher brought prints from the 18th century that she knew how to reproduce in pencil with naturalness and precision.
At 17, her first exhibition. "A lot of mistrust on my part, a lot of trust on the part of others." That or the moment when Francesca Orfino understands that art is no longer just her passion, but also something that she can share with others.
She leaves her job, and what now seemed like her destiny, at a dental technician's office to pursue painting and what only it could offer her: a profound sense of freedom.
"What's more beautiful than doing what you like? Art makes me have fun, relax, it makes me stay in contact with people.
I have never chased success tenaciously because it scares me. It terrifies me to lose my freedom."
Her artistic path was born and developed in this way
way, by chance or by necessity.
In 1980 someone introduced her to Pietro Benevento, painter and professor of Fine Arts, teacher of Percy and Mastroianni. After a few lessons Benevento gives her words that will remain for her above any teaching.
He gives her courage, gives her the confidence that she had always lacked. However, she does not lack her technique, the result of her talent and her private studies.
"I love oil, on wood or canvas, I love its softness, the material, the contact with the colours, I also use my fingers".
Her oils are "almost greedily savored by the caress of color-soaked fingers that have sculpted their volumes".
The dominant theme in her art is nature.
Francesca Orfino paints what she sees, instinctively, without a specific purpose. None of his
of her paintings is constructed or imagined, everything comes from a
direct contact, with a fascinated and attentive gaze.
To the overall view, to the broad landscape and
dispersive, our artist prefers detail. The leaf, the flower that grows from a stone, the crack
in the wood: it's the details that capture you
attention, they strike, they excite.
However, there is no shortage of landscapes in her repertoire.
Very deep and endless, they express all of his
sense of freedom.
As in the definition of the ancients, also in the
In her paintings, art is an imitation of nature.
And nature has always been an object of contemplation
from the man, in whose eyes she presents herself with a
perpetually new magnificence.
"I love autumn colours, reds, the atmosphere of certain seasons, I love still lifes".
Flowers, fruit, inanimate objects acquire soul with Francesca Orfino's brush.
As if crossed and intimately pervaded by a breath of life that recalls, today, what the seventeenth-century writer Francesco Lana said about Caravaggio: "in painting the said objects one takes on a certain frankness in working, which is very helpful and invigorates".
Sometimes enchanting, sometimes threatening and imposing, nature has another surprising aspect: its variety and concreteness always gives a sense of familiarity.
And even more familiar are these works which never hide the artist's southernness, and indeed, boldly manifest it in the splitting of figs and other typical fruits of his land or in the pure strength of sunflowers, calla lilies and mimosas.
All the subjects live through the light of a southern sun, sometimes soft and delicate, sometimes joyful and bursting.
This is Francesca Orfino who, even before being an artist, is a woman.
And as such you faced numerous obstacles, from the lack of possibility of attending the Academy to the distrust of some gallery owners, to the usual difficulties of the contemporary art market. On the other hand, being a woman has embellished her art, which continues to amaze with its undeniable and boundless sensitivity.
That ability to observe and scrutinize and then return, with new light and greater feeling.
She is a mother, she is a companion, generous and sensitive in life as in art.
She knows the pain, the real one, which, day after day, will make painting her refuge, her outlet, and then her rebirth.
"I clung to art, it was my light." Today she is a new, strong and serene woman. Her eyes say it, as deep as the sea. Her canvases confirm this, wonderfully spontaneous and sunny.