Andrea Padovani is a professional artist who has been living on Cortes for much of the last 17 years, but there is a sense in which his show ‘Deep Breath,’ which opens in the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery this Friday, is his introduction to the larger island community.
He explained, “I have a problem expressing my real deep feelings in a conversation, if you really want to know me, look at my paintings. That this really represents a hundred percent of what I am.”
Cortes Currents: Do you find people get it?
Andrea Padovani: “10 percent.”
“It took me 17 years before I really understood and allowed myself to go and to really portray the different beauty of Cortes. Obviously I could do the first year, but that would’ve been a technical expression. What I’m going to show in my show is the way in which I see Cortes.”
The large painting I saw, entering his studio a month and a half ago, will most likely not be in the show.
Andrea Padovani: “It’s very European, it is Venice, this is more of the thing that I’m always doing. Then what is the point of coming to meet the people in Cortes – even if 17 years later because we owned this place for 17 years. I want to talk with people, sharing the same image. Then I can share my vision of that image and I have to be ready to get the feeling of the other person that maybe has spent all his life here in Cortes. That is interesting.”
“If now (through my paintings) I’m taking you to Verona, that is my hometown in Italy. Very few people have seen Verona or the light of Verona. So I’m the king. You cannot fight, it’s difficult, but let’s talk about Cortes. This is my take on my show. ‘Deep Breath’ is the title of the show, because each of us can have a say. Each of us can make a point. There is no right or wrong, absolutely, but at least we talk about the same language.”
Cortes Currents: Tell us a little about Italy
Andrea Padovani: “In Italy, when you say a word, immediately I know more or less from which city or which area you come, even what you eat. Now the world is changing, but more or less you can still tell.”
Cortes Currents: So when you grew up, the recipes were basically regional in terms of what you eat?
Andrea Padovani: “yes, definitely. In the last few years now, I have turned out to be vegetarian. So I discarded most of the typical diet because in Northern Italy, which is based on meat and dairy, but still I enjoy my spaghetti very much. I have to have pasta every day! That is really my DNA.”
“When I was a kid, I was very passionate about drawing, but not my parents. If in Italy at the time you would say, ‘I’m an artist’ that means you are everybody and nobody. There is no definition. Most of the people that would say ‘I’m an artist’ were people who are not willing to do much in life. There is this concept that we have to achieve. Everybody, especially in the post industrial society, has to achieve. We have to show that we can make money, there is that concept. So if you are telling me that you are an artist, I cannot say you are a failure – but I can think that.”
“For my parents, admitting that I was really inclined in the arts was a no-no. So I became a bookkeeper and then at the university I had all my orientation, my studies, so I got a degree in political science.”
“After five -six years working with my dad, I said enough! I had to quit and to start being a professional artist. It was a risky choice, but so far so good.”
“Now I need an accountant because my mind is really refusing to do anything with numbers. My mind completely shut on that, but I am still a certified bookkeeper.”
Cortes Currents: This was back in Verona?
Andrea Padovani: “Yes, and then 27 years ago we moved to Canada.”
“I was lucky that I had a very good relationship with a gallery in the North Shore, in Vancouver. There were a lot of people of British heritage, more or less the same taste, very traditional. So that was a very good base for my art career. I exhibit almost all over the world, but that is part of a curriculum.”
“I enjoy the time that I spend at the easel. This is a painting that I’m doing for myself.”
“I understand that when we are talking about visual arts, there are a lot of things that we have to take in considerations because the education of the people, the way in which they are able to put up their own feeling, because now if we want really to talk deeply on the paintings, you cannot ask me to be so honest and to be so naked. If you want that kind of conversation, now do your part. If you’re telling me that when you were a kid, or when you had a bad experience that shaped your life: we are talking the same language.”
“I can explain why there is a lot of black, or why there is a lot of red, or maybe there is a messy room or the horizon is not completely flat or is not completely straight. Now we can talk in that language.”
“If you are telling me I have a very nice red sofa and I’m looking for something matching a curtain, we can talk in that language. I can be a good salesperson, and then I will tell you maybe this is your painting because you see those flowers etc.”
“When I am at the show’s opening, it is enjoyable because of the feedback. It’s always important to listen, even when you do not want to listen.”
“In life it is always good to find a person with whom you can really relate, and I’m not saying relate because you understand the technique of oil painting. I can relate because there is something that is going back to your memories, going back to something that really shaped your feeling, your emotion, your life itself. That is difficult.”
“I know sometimes it’s difficult to talk with me, but it’s also difficult to find somebody that is really open to talk because obviously we have a protected area. The French, they say they found you.”
Cortes Currents: Going back to your show, what’s the vision?
Andrea Padovani: “My vision is my everyday walk.”
“The way in which I like very much to feel the wind. If the wind is not there, there is the sign of the wind because the trees are shaped in the direction of prevailing wind. If I do not see the low tide, because now it is middle tide, I know where the tide was. So that is the sign that I pick, maybe the viewer is not able or never thought to see and to look for those signs. If you look at the crack in the rocks, they give us a direction from where the main push came. We know that gravity has to be taken into consideration. We do not see gravity, but we know it’s keeping us grounded.”
Cortes Currents: Tell me about the message in some of those individual pictures.
“The largest painting is really one of the best paintings that I have ever done. Was not my purpose to reproduce exactly the scene, my idea was to give the viewer the idea of a rising tide, the idea that very soon I had to move out from there because the ocean was going to get me.”
“The other painting, when I was walking on this very miserable day, pouring rain. I had my jacket, my dog was soaked wet, and we were going back to the car. And all of a sudden I could see just the profile because Marina Island was just a profile, was not even an island. That was so spectacular. It’s kind of a ghost, it’s something that you have to really look, and it’s not only grey, it is an intense grey. Then you look beside and there is a grey that is more bluish and then you see the foggy sky.”
“These are the kinds of feelings that I hope that I’ll be able to really share with the viewer. If I’m able to do that with a majority of the people, then I think that is a successful show. That is the measure of what you can be.”
Cortes Currents: How long does it take on an average painting?
Andrea Padovani: “A large painting can take three days, on average, and in a smaller one, one day. It’s concerning if I’m spending a week on a painting, it means that I have so many afterthoughts that are really spoiling that painting. This is the way in which I work.”
“I don’t know if you’re familiar, alla prima. That is a technique. Basically you prepare your color and then you go and for a lot of artists alla prima is maybe the preparatory painting for the next painting. To me, when I’m doing alla prima or a painting like this, then the subject is spoiled. Don’t ask me, because now you are coming as a potential buyer you are telling me, oh, by the way, I want the same painting but in this size and stuff. I would say, oh, do you really want a technical painting? I can do that. Don’t ask me for the soul on that painting, because that painting is there is one and is done. So it would be extremely, extremely difficult for me to go again, deep in that subject matter and deep in that specific situation. In the renaissance, they had preparatory sketches, they did so many tests to show the pattern and then they had to go back and make corrections. It is not my way.”
Cortes Currents: Tell me about coming to Cortes. Why have you come to Cortes? What does Cortes mean to you?
Andrea Padovani: “The story is pretty unusual. We have to be prepared for what life is bringing to us.”
“When I came out from Italy, I had never been on a sailboat. When I was walking in Vancouver, the ocean, I was fascinated by the sailboat. So as soon as I could, I bought an older sailboat. I took a power squadron course, and had three or four lessons. So I was more or less prepared. We came to Desolation Sound because it’s such a spectacular place and, for some reason, we ended up a couple of times in Cortes Bay. My kids at the time were really young, six and nine.”
“Three years later, after dinner my daughter caught a salmon in the bay. We were trying to entertain her, we gave her a fishing rod, and that was spectacular. There was a sign on the place where we are now, for sale.”
“I said, my life would be so much easier to spend the summer in Cortes. That was the beginning. I started spending time on my own in winter because my wife was in Lions Bay with the kids. During COVID, I was here on Cortes for eight months a year. I love my wood stove. I love the atmosphere. I like to see very few people around, so I enjoy it very much.”
Cortes Currents: Do you live part of the time in North Vancouver?
Andrea Padovani: “No, now my wife is living in Whistler. So it is between but when I’m here, I consider it home. I get along very well with my wife, but we enjoy our independence.”
Cortes Currents Is it fun having two homes?
Andrea Padovani: “Definitely, and people laugh at me when I say I also have to be in Italy twice a year for at least three weeks because my mom is aging and she has some problems. I have to be in Italy to give some relief to my brother and my siblings.”
Cortes Currents: Is there anything you would like to add?
Andrea Padovanni: “I would like to add that I feel a little ashamed of myself, that took me 17 years to really meet the art community. I obviously know people on Cortes, but now I am starting to know the art community of Cortes. I knew indirectly that it was quite alive. Everything needs time. I feel happy and thrilled, to meet, to share my vision, and also hopefully to have an exchange with some other artists.”
Cortes Currents: Did you just join the artist group?
Andrea Padovani: “I started after I did the application three or four months ago.”
“I went a couple of times to the art gallery and the community hall here in Manson Landing to meet Mel, the organizer. It was an interesting opportunity.”
Links of Interest:
- Andrea Padovani’s website
- Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery website
- Articles about the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery
All images of paintings courtesy Andrea Padovani
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