Watercolours of Moreno dalla Vecchia

I love admiring paintings and sculptures. Among the different styles of paintings, my favourite is watercolours. This post is about a watercolour artist from Schio (VI), Moreno dalla Vecchia, who is also the president of the Schio's association of artists.

Recently I talked to Moreno during an exhibition of local artists held at Toaldi-Capra palace in the city centre.

Moreno's Artistic Evolution

Moreno loved art ever since he can remember. Seeing his artistic skills, his teachers suggested that he should study art. Thus, after completing middle school, in late 1960s he decided to join the art school in Padova. He studied there for five years.

He followed it for another 2-years' course for teaching art. However he decided to not to work as a teacher, instead he chose to work in public administration. Moreno retired four years ago from his public administration job. During his working life, being an artist was a parallel life for him. He feels that having a separate job allowed him to be more independent in his artistic evolution because he didn't need to earn from his art.

He has continued to learn and practice art ever since. For example, after completing art school, for about 10 years, he joined an art group in Vicenza called La Soffitta, created by Otello de Maria. Here, artists can meet, talk, and learn from each other. In this period, he experimented with oils, design and water-colours. He said, "Initially I was afraid of water-colours, I can't explain why but I was hesitant to try it. However, once I started to work with water-colours, I never stopped, I have continued to work with this medium." 

Moreno had started with oil paintings, and experimented with other techniques including acrylic, tempera, graffite and frescoes, before coming to water-colours. He has even taught oil painting and likes oil paintings.

Regarding his approach to water-colour painting, he said, "Now I am trying to get away from using photographs, to a slightly more real depiction of my subjects. I am thinking of this new approach but it is not yet very clear. Usually, when we paint we follow our mental images and not the reality of things as they are."

Artists' Association of Schio

Scledense Artists' group is about 50 years old. It did not even have a room and used to
meet in a bar. It is a space for meeting, talking and supporting each other. In June each year, the city and Scledense artists traditionally organise an open-air art exhibition called Sareo Art Festival. At the same time, they organise a thematic art competition for the primary and middle schools of Schio.

About the activities of their association, Moreno explained, "With time, other initiatives were added to Sareo festival, such as organisation of exhibitions in different city-spaces such as the Toaldi-Capra Palace. When Schio had the orchids and flowers exhibition, we also participated by having an exhibition on art about flowers. For example, the present exhibition has 5 artists from the city. Then, we have another initiative planned for Christmas and the end of year, which will focus on still-life."

There was a time when this group had 80 members, but now they are much less, around 30 persons and Moreno dalla Vecchia is its president. For him, it was important to be a part of this group since it kept alive his interest in art by getting new ideas, learning from others. He said, "We organised initiatives, we displayed our art, I also took part in some art competitions."

Art Courses in Schio

After completing his studies, Moreno came back to Schio, and he joined the Artists' group. One of his first initiative was to organise art courses. Together with another artist, Moreno organised an evening course for design and painting.

He said, "Around 15 persons came to the first course, sometimes they had no idea about art. The course lasted five evenings. Later on, I became the president of our association and started organising solo courses on water-colours. Some of my students have grown to become good artists. For example, Mari Baldissarotto, who is also a part of this exhibition, was one of my students, who has become a wonderful artist."

In Conclusion

Every time I meet persons like Moreno, who have cultivated a passion for all their lives alongside a 9-to-5 daily job, I feel a great admiration for them. There are so many others who say that they did not get time to do what they really wanted in their lives, because they had a full-time job.

I am sure that persons like Moreno, need to make sacrifices for keeping alive their passion. At the same time, their dedication to their passion means that their families get lesser time and attention. It would have been an interesting theme to discuss with him, however, I did not talk about it to Moreno. 

*****