Featured Artist Isabella Monari

Italian artist Isabella Monari’s oil paintings focus on sport events, recreational pastimes and human interaction. See more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

I have been drawing since I was in kindergarten. One of the best gifts I ever received when I was little were paints and modeling clay from my father. Since then not much has changed.

 

 

Along the way I have received good advice from many different people. One of those was an old painter I met on the train from Bologna to Florence. He painted from real life and was carrying a small wooden suitcase filled with oil paints. He gave me his thoughts on which type of colors were better—for instance, which red, which blue and so forth—and he pushed me to enter the Free School of Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in order to receive training in the arts, which I did.

 

 

Afterwards, I studied foreign languages and got a degree in political science specializing in sociology. This matched my interest in examining and portraying society and human relations. However, my main interest was still painting.

 

 

My works are inspired by images captured during my travels, sporting events, the beach or anywhere else where people meet. I normally change the landscapes, the faces and the clothing. The parts I keep almost unaltered are the attitudes and emotions I see in the people I paint, as well as their positions in relation to the other components of the group. I try to “photograph” people’s states of mind and the way they feel. It is not important where and when. That’s probably why it has been said that my paintings convey the sense that time has been suspended.

 

 

I live in Rome, Italy. One of the reasons I love Rome is the warm light of summer afternoons. Although it is quite disorganized and chaotic, it is also full of light, open air cafés, street artists, beautiful sporting centers along the Tiber river, and warm, friendly, open people.

 

 

That light I mention is the same light you see in my paintings—strong sun and long shadows in the summer afternoons—almost like a holiday atmosphere.

 

 

The medium I use is oil paint because it is more versatile. I paint on canvas or on wood, leaving the natural wood visible in some parts to create a connection between the people and their environment. White is very important for me because it changes its shades, mixes with light blue, pale pink, green and yellow. That allows me to experiment every time.

 

 

When I came to Rome ten years ago, it was just to paint there for a couple of months in the winter away from the cold climate of Bologna, and I didn’t know that I would end up staying. One day as I was walking along the river, I stopped, fascinated by four tennis players playing at one of those sport clubs.

 

 

I did some sketches, and as I had no easel or materials with me, I found a big piece of cardboard abandoned outside a shop, bought a piece of fabric and stretched it on the cardboard. I made my drawing on this “found” canvas first, then bought some paints. That was the first painting I did in Rome. A Sicilian friend of my flat mate bought it when the thick layer of white color on the tennis ball was still wet!

 

 

As an artist, I focus on sports and sporting events; my paintings represent a universe of people together in a “play” or “sport” context. I believe that sports are fundamental to our education because they teach us to improve ourselves and how to relate with others without taking ourselves too seriously. In sport or play there are rules of respect, but also a lot of freedom in expressing ourselves.

 

 

These events and games are human interactions based on shared moments that are free from real conflict. They are actually a sublimation of life—the human interactions in each sport are carried out in a safe place, thanks to rules, respect for the opponent and fair play—and are actually a message of universal brotherhood that reconnects us to our core human values.

 

Artist Isabella Monari invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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