How and why did you start your artistic career?

I think it all started as a game. I’m an only child and I spent a lot of time alone. I was fascinated by old, dusty objects, the ones without batteries, that I found exploring my grandmother’s basement. I played with objects of all kinds, enjoying assembling them and often hitting or deteriorating them to see what was hidden under the paint. I created stories and improvised scenographies with these objects. I was very precise about the forms I wanted to obtain, everything had to respect universal rules applicable to reality. The idea that they could come to life was very vivid in my head.
That was perhaps the freest period of my creativity. I had no influences, I knew what I liked and the desire to express myself gave me great satisfaction. Over time, I shifted my attention to drawing. For years I didn’t use colors, I drew with a black pen on white sheets. In my heart I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but the idea became concrete when I arrived at the Academy. I was amazed by the chromatic experimentation on what seemed to me like enormous canvases, and from there I was immediately absorbed by color. Thanks to the Decoration Atelier, I began to experiment, seeing people with different imaginations use a variety of media. That’s where my artistic research began.
I don’t know exactly why I chose an artistic career. I tried other paths, but I’m not good at doing anything else. Even if I still don’t know if I’m a good artist, I’ve always had the certainty of wanting to make art.

How did you discover your medium and why did you choose it?

I never really asked myself this question. When I entered the Academy and saw many students painting, I understood that I had to do the same. I believe that the pictorial process, in its universality, belongs to me: from the canvas stretched on the frame, to the smell of thinner, to the magic of being able, with simple brushstrokes, to give form to what I consider windows on the world, outside of time and space.
Despite this, I’ve never precluded the possibility of exploring other media.

Can you tell us about your creative process? How does your work come to life? How long does it take you to create a piece? When do you know it is finished?

My creative process varies a lot. Generally, I start by collecting images, both mental and physical, everything that intrigues or fascinates me. However, I often end up forgetting them or no longer finding them interesting, so I realize it’s better to start painting. Ideas re-emerge as the pictorial process takes shape, and I’ve understood that visual research, by itself, is enough for me. Unconsciously, images appear on the canvas.
Each work has its own process. Sometimes I throw myself onto the canvas without knowing exactly what I’ll represent, and the images develop spontaneously. It’s as if the color itself suggests where to place it. I enter a sort of trance, which empties my mind and allows me to create things I would never have imagined. Other times, instead, the process is longer: the images are pondered and studied, and can emerge slowly, over the course of weeks or months.

I like to observe those around me, especially young artists who follow paths parallel to mine, coming from various Academies in Italy and beyond. As for more established artists, I greatly admire the painting of Guglielmo Castelli and Thomas Braida, as well as the figuration of Giuliana Rosso and the virtuoso chromaticism of Giuseppe Gonella. I’m fascinated by the magical realism of Francesco De Grandi and the expressive intimacy of Nebojša Despotović.
I love the way Riccardo Baruzzi, Michele Bubacco and Alessandro Pessoli see the world, and I’m very attracted to the delicate narration of Maddalena Tesser and Anastasiya Parvanova. I also appreciate the temporal suspension that Thomas Berra manages to create. I like many other contemporary artists as well.
Finally, I love twentieth-century figurative painting, I’m a fan of primitive painting, art brut and the Transavanguardia.

THE ARTIST

Name: Thomas Antonelli
Residence: Italy

FEATURED WORKS

Thomas Antonelli – End of Summer, mixed media on canvas, 150x80cm