Publisher Eric Rhoads interviews Marc Dalessio in this week’s PleinAir Art Podcast. Dalessio is an American artist who went to Italy in 1992 on a one-year trip, and says he stayed there because he found what he was looking for. He began studying at the Florence Academy, where he learned the techniques that he had a difficult time finding teachers of in the US (he notes that this was before the wonders of today’s internet).
Learn from Marc Dalessio in person at the 8th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo, also featuring Joseph Zbukvic, Georgia Mansur, and many more!
Dalessio now paints and teaches full time near Florence. In the interview, he tells us about how he started in portraiture and painted landscapes on the weekends. After creating portraits (using a limited palette) for many years, he says he found that he preferred the freedom he experienced of painting en plein air, and he began painting with a broader selection of colors for his outdoor work. He adds that he studied painting in order to study nature, and while he isn’t opposed to using photo references, he doesn’t use them for his own paintings.
Another interesting topic they discuss is oil paints; Dalessio says he had started making his own oils, but now that the quality of store-bought oil paints has improved so much, he buys a specific brand.
On painting landscapes, he says that painting the natural world is a way for him to revere its creation the way it is, instead of imposing a style to represent it.
Listen to PleinAir Art Podcast Episode 79 with Eric Rhoads and Marc Dalessio here:
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[…] Listen to Episode 79 of the PleinAir Art Podcast with Eric Rhoads, featuring Marc Dalessio! […]