Giuseppina Brandi – Guest Feature

Well I promised something new for 2024 and here it is. A guest feature for an artist. I plan for the Tuesday Guest Feature to extend to many creatives as well as writers, including artists, photographers, craftworkers etc. So watch this space. However, today, I’d like to introduce artist, Giuseppina Brandi, whose work I greatly admire.

Giuseppina chats about her influences, inspiration, and artist journey which I’m know you’re going to love.

Influences, Inspiration and My Artist Journey

Giuseppina Brandi

I’m a self-taught emerging artist, mostly of contemporary figurative paintings and illustrations. I was captivated by the magic of creation from a young age; I’ve been drawing all my life, for as long as I can recall. I remember vividly when at the age of five, I told my parents that the only things I wanted for my birthday was a drawing pad and coloured pencils (and a typewriter too), so I got my first Fabriano pad.

Art has always been a main focus, even though I worked a variety of regular, non-art jobs, and even though I stopped making art for a long time, mainly due to lack of time. It’s only been a year since I started painting again and since then I started submitting work to magazines and journals.

My art is influenced by various Schools, from the paintings of antiquity – I’m enchanted by the Fayum portraits – to the more refined works of the 19th century, with a predilection for Caravaggio, Giovanni Boldini, the Impressionism and Surrealism.

Above painting by Giuseppina Brandi – Winter – Mixed-media (watercolour, acrylic, markers)

I love using different media, enjoying the physicality and the expressiveness of the different materials: watercolour, acrylic and oil paintings are equally important to me, but currently the medium that fascinates me the most is watercolour. Mother technique of the fresh sign and improvisation, its uncontrollable aspect leads you to paint in a more instinctive way, because of those colors that mix randomly, and spur you to find a balance between skills and unpredictability.

As for the subjects of my artworks, each one of them has a story, made up from my imagination, or from history or other fields of human knowledge, even if it is just hinted at, and brushwork after brushwork, their stories unfold on the paper/canvas, mingling with feelings and emotions from my personal experiences. I tend to paint mostly female subjects, and I mainly focus on faces although I like to vary and draw or paint subjects that belong to the natural or fantasy world. I have never set limits on what or how to draw. I definitely have preferences, but I love finding new ways to express myself through my art; I try to create works pertaining to what I am passionate about. I’m fond of fairy tales too and have always loved mythology and folklore, so I really like drawing on these branches and using their fruits.

In the field of illustrations there are various artists I draw inspiration from, including Brian Froud, Sarah Coomer and Angela Harding, to name but a few.

Above Painting by Giuseppina Brandi – Down the River – Watercolour Published in Acropolis Journal: Issue Eight

I’m still learning and experimenting to find my true voice. I consider the process of finding my artistic voice a journey more than a destination.

There are so many amazing contemporary artists who inspire me and challenge me to step out of my comfort zone. So I say to myself that it’s ok to try new things and experiment, at my own pace, taking my time, in order to find what truly resonates with me as an artist.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that I love making art and I have fun and I enjoy doing it.

Above painting by Giuseppina Brandi – THE MELODY OF THE SOUL – Mixed-media published in Fever of the Mind Poetry, Art &Music: Issue 8

About Giuseppina Brandi

Giuseppina Brandi lives in Naples, Italy, with her five-year-old son. She has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literatures, with a Dissertation on Poetry in Europe during WWI. She has mainly worked in tourism as a cultural and tourist information centre officer. She loves the 1920s and 1930s and used to collect memorabilia from that era: necklaces, earrings, garments, postcards and old books.

She is currently taking a Professional Course in Literary Translation.

Autodidact, she has always loved drawing and painting, and she takes inspiration from natural world and human emotions. With a great passion for poetry too, she believes in the power that art and poetry have of healing and connecting. Her artwork has been published in Black Bough Poetry edition Sound and Vision, Acropolis Journal: Issue Seven, Blue Motel Rooms Poetry and Art inspired by Joni Mitchell, The Poetica Sisterhood of Sylvia & Anne, Fever of the Mind Poetry, Art&Music: Issue 8, Cover art of the Spellbinder literary Magazine: Autumn issue 2023, Acropolis Journal: Issue Eight, Moss Puppy Magazine.