What a joyous experience! The Florence Biennale

 Steffie Wallace does beautiful, moody seascapes.

She put her hands in the air for her photo, and

picked up a prize in painting!  Yay Steffie.

here husband Neil is also a sweetie, and they hail

from Australia - a long, long way to travel.

When it comes to luck I really think I'm blessed.
I've just spent 10 days in one of the most beautiful
cities in the world, with a group of artists, who
were not only massively creative, but who formed
lovely connections, were filled with advice,
information, connections, support, and most of
all humour and joie de vie.

The painter Chu before the 

Happy People idea

Chu's wonderful paintings

(the two circular textured works 

And Chu getting happy (oh and

he won a prize in painting!)

On the second to last day Miranda Brouwers and I
began encouraging people to envision a world where
all of their work sold, they got super commissions,
-- they had no problems creating, and we took
photos of them showing their joy at how things
were going.  Instantly their mood changed, and we
had sooo much fun.

Puerto Rico's Gabriel Esquivel paints joy, 

and was delighted to become even happier!

Elisa Ana Bono is Italian, and her theme

is the ocean, like me in this Biennale.  We spent

10 days together.  I even drew her (that's

for another day), but we couldn't speak

to one another except for Hi and Goodbye --

yet a bond developed.  Elisa did the

happy people hands up, and won

a prize in ceramics (I'm just saying!)

 Switzerland's Astrid Bänziger does paintings
 in a variety of styles -- all bright and colourful.
Happiness is part of her vision. 

Encarna Díaz Velasco from Mexico showed

hangings featuring faces, and eyes that looked right

through you.  She also combined writing with drawing,

and one hanging was sculptural.  She won a prize in

mixed media.

Now here's an interesting fact, a great number of those
people became prize winners in the show!  So put your
hands in the air, put your hands in the air.  I'll show you
some of them today, and introduce you to some super
artists. Miranda and I envision this Happy People idea
continuing.  I do have more artists to introduce you to,
and I will do that next time.

Have a believing-artists-are-happy day.