Amid the endlessly beautiful countryside and unbelievably old towns, the Maremma has cultivated, little by little, a small cluster of artists that has me bubbling with excitement.
Some of these artists are internationally renowned, some are local legends and others are young Maremmani, just starting out, never even entertaining the thought of painting or drawing or photographing anywhere else but in the breathtaking province they call home.
In my home town, Manciano, we proudly proclaim two of the Maremma’s most famous artists as our own, Paride Pascucci and Pietro Aldi.
Long dead, Aldi loved painting prolific scenes in Italy’s history, while Pascucci, also dead, is better known as the historian of the Maremma, a man who preserved the terrifying reality of a malaria ridden 19th century in a time when most couldn’t read or write.
Sure they had none of the fame of Da Vinci or Michelangelo, but these two men proved the Maremma could foster more than just fields to plough and livestock to rear. They showed that she too could inspire artistry and poeticism to rival any cultured city.
While this artistic pedigree petered off in the decades following Aldi and Pascucci’s deaths, I am pleased to say that the Maremma is experiencing a bit of cultural revival of late.
And I am utterly chipper about it!
In my own home, my Manciano, local artists have become to create Via delle Artiste. Just like in Florence or Montmartre!
It’s early days still, but I was lucky enough to chat to the woman who has started it all recently, an extremely talented, adopted Maremmana named Gemma Detti.
Gemma went from architect to artist after she realised her clients were climbing over one another to hang her drawings on the walls once she had finished projects from them.
Since starting work, she has designed hotels and restaurants, new buildings and restored historic buildings all over Italy, the UK, the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia.
After moving to the Maremma, she started painting full time in 2010. She might be Roman born, but Gemma could fool any Maremmano into thinking she’s a native. Believe me, she had me convinced!
She now displays and sells her gorgeous paintings in a small and very bespoke gallery on Via della in Manciano. Her aesthetic is architectural portraiture, capturing the lines, shapes and sometimes skeleton of buildings in the most striking colours.
You might think the Maremma doesn’t lend itself to modern art. It should be inspiring epic landscapes and classic oil paintings right?
Well, I think the below painting by Gemma begs to differ. I think it is simply stunning.
It’s not easy to depict the history of a city as old as Manciano with sharp lines and military precision, but somehow Gemma ties the modern reality and traditional fanaticism of the city effortlessly in a melancholic and alluring purple colour palette to boot.
The gallery she has in Manciano isn’t just to display her work though. Most days you can see her working away on something new. Carefully, she applies quartz paint to canvas, before laying coats of naturally pigmented acrylic paints over the surface, one layer at a time.
In the winter, she works by her electric fireplace, stopping every once in a while to chat to a neighbour or an old friend before returning to her latest collection, which features manmade structures from London, Milan and Tuscany.
At the moment, Gemma is the only artist on Manciano’s Via delle Artiste.
Her studio is a converted wine cellar, painted white and filled with bright red couches and books. But I just know, let’s say, I can just feel that she has set the ball rolling.
Soon the via will be bubbling with artists of all styles and tastes, and Manciano will once again be the artistic hub it was when Aldi and Pascucci were laying it out for the world to see in water colours and oil paints a century ago.
So if you’re in Manciano, stop by and visit Gemma. See her incredible paintings and say hello! Oh and for more info on her amazing art, visit her website!