The Blue beyond the Sea, on the Island of Elba

There is a blue that goes beyond the sea, It is an existential blue, one that just by looking at it makes us sink into the depths of our inner sea.

The idea came to me during a lunch break at the seaside, at the foot of the Linguella Museum, an archaeological site with a tower that faces directly onto the sea of the Medici dock, at Portoferraio. It is a place full of history and beauty.

I consider observing the sea with its ever shifting patterns from here a relaxing privilege.

So I decided to follow those constantly changing patterns and make a series of linocut prints representing the different moods of the sea, reflecting the different stirrings of the soul.

DISCOVER THE PRINTS

The most interesting revelation was how enjoyable and calming I found it to cut linoleum, a technique I had utilised before at the Accademia di Brera but which I had now rediscovered.

Within a short time I had dived headfirst into this medium, learning to appreciate the gestures and even the smell.

The print in monochrome shades of blue made textures verging on the abstract appear magically on the paper.

A blue that emerged from the pattern and became pure sign.

I like to see these works in relation to those of Yves Klein, an artist who devoted his life to the colour blue, turning it into an existential dimension and exploring the condition of transfiguration and immateriality with it.

Blue as aesthetic dimension.

That is what I would like to convey with these works, like a breath of magic able to contain both the heights and the depths of a landscape that is of both the world and the soul.

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