Italy: The Spring Trip

 

Thursday 26th April, 8pm

This is a brief account of my travels to Italy and as I leave home I have to remind myself of the reasons for taking myself 1200 miles away from my own studio: doing so alone only confirms to me that this is totally my journey, to find the source of the purest stone on earth. I am driving down to the mountains of Carrara and Pietrsanta in north eastern Tuscany, where I hope to buy some pure statuary marble.

The desire to carve a pure block of marble, straight from the mountains, has been building within me and I now feel the time has come to experience the Alpi Apaune mountains up close, as it's only here where it can get truly personal. Ever since I started carving stone some 10 years ago it has been my wish to make this pilgrimage (as that is what it feels like) and now the journey has begun. I am heading for the Verrocchio Arts Centre in Casole d' Elsa, www.verrocchio.co.uk, which sits among the central Tuscan hills between Florence and Siena. Here I will spend 4 weeks working the marble alongside Nigel Konstam who is an English master carver who moved to Tuscany some 20 years ago and set up this centre. I shall also be visiting Marco Giannoni in Pietrsanta to arrange a further study trip in his studio for the late autumn.