Artistic Dilemma

We've not been to see any art over the past few weeks as we've been remodelling our kitchen. Before starting we removed all the art from the room and stored it safely away from the dust and mess. Unfortunately, we didn't really plan where these items would go in the new layout and now the kitchen's almost finished we have to resolve that problem. None of it can go back where it was as we've moved equipment around and added new cupboards.

We're faced with two decisions: whether to try and display everything we had originally or change some of the pieces, and choosing new places to put the items we decide to keep in the room.

We've already discussed this at length and haven't yet come up with an answer. When we do finally work out what we're going to do we'll let you know what we decided and how we ended up displaying the art.

Vick and Vince,
Love Your Art

Lovely Art - And Tempting Food Too!

The BBC continues to produce some fascinating programmes about art. We have written recently about Fake or Fortune and last Friday night we came across Sicily Unpacked. The show not only covered some of the interesting art in Sicily but also another of our favourite subjects, food!

Vicky has been to Sicily before and has visited some of the locations shown on the programme. One of the sights she didn't see was the Oratorio del Rosario di Santa Cita in Sicily's capital, Palermo. Art historian and presenter, Andrew Graham-Dixon, was keen to show his co-presenter, Giorgio Locatelli, the interior of this building. Once inside they turned to marvel at the stunning, ornate decoration. What seemed like hundreds of incredibly fine religious figures and scenes covered the walls. These are the work of sculptor, Giacomo Serpotta, who used stucco with added marble dust to create an amazing finish to the sculptures.

Later, as the two presenters visited the Vucciria market looking for food to cook for dinner, they popped through a doorway to find a modern painting of the market by Renato Guttuso. The picture was densely packed with shoppers, market traders, stalls and food. Andrew pointed out some of the stories incorporated in the picture such as two traders apparently feuding over something. Guttuso also has other links with food; he illustrated the book Italian Food by Elizabeth David.

We're still planning our 2012 holidays and the temptation offered by the food as well as the interesting art may be too much for us to resist a visit together sometime soon.

The series runs for a further 2 episodes on BBC2 on Friday evenings. You can catch episode 1 on iPlayer over the next few days.

Vicky And Vince,

Love Your Art.