Guido Borelli’s landscapes

In this new analysis, we will discuss the following work by the artist Guido Borelli. A gallery filled with incredible landscapes.

He was born in the quaint town of Caluso, Italy, where he spent his entire life nurturing a passion for painting since his early years. With a keen interest in the arts, he pursued formal painting studies, graduating and showcasing his talent at a remarkably young age.

He holds a deep admiration for select Italian Impressionist artists, whose works have significantly influenced his own artistic journey.

His technique captures this from Impressionism but giving a quality that could be called “realistic” to his paintings.

However, it’s not that he only paints what he sees, but he also relies heavily on his memory. He sees something he likes, remembers it, and starts sketching that memory. Therefore, in his landscapes, not everything is entirely faithful to reality despite having such realistic and detailed styles, but he imbues them with his own memories, which can give the work another quality.

Overall, his works are of very high quality. His technique is impressive, especially in handling lights and shadows.

Let’s take the first work from the post as our analysis.

In particular, I highlight the RHYTHM of this piece. For example, the colors—how the reds emerge and repeat, or the structures that appear. Also, in the geometric aspect, how the visual fields are divided.

There’s a certain harmony in the arrangement of spaces. There’s a certain continuity in the lighter spaces. It’s almost like they’re “jumping,” and that gives the visual rhythm to the piece.

The execution is very detailed and precise, contrasting with our work, which was more free-form.

Here, expressiveness is conveyed more through the contrasts of lights and shadows.

The level of complexity in the work is very high; the author’s craftsmanship is very detailed.

Regarding framing, we can discuss the white spaces to let the artwork breathe. So that amidst all this condensed information, we can rest our eyes while traversing it.

It’s important to give “space” to the composition so that it’s not all so saturated, unless it’s an intentional choice.

Here, we allow it to breathe more for greater harmony.

Also interesting are the blues used to represent the sea. The sky is very clear, but the sea reflects the classic blue of the sky. He has also hinted at two contrasting colors between the blue and the earthy or reddish tones representing the reflection of the structure in the water and the wave where the sky is reflected again.

The lighting is quite clear, coming diagonally from right to left. The sun is fairly high in the sky but not so much as to allow for strong shadows.

It’s also interesting to note the different planes in the artwork. Beyond the empty parts (which would be the background), the foreground would be the beach, the midground the building, and the background the rock.

The depth of the artwork is provided by the light itself. The dark planes like those in the background make our gaze penetrate all the complexity of different shapes, especially geometric ones. We also return to the theme of rhythm. The splashes, more related to vegetation, break that geometry to also provide some rest or deviation from the very geometric figure of the buildings.

The harmony we spoke of with the colors relates to the presence of these well-defined sectors. The blues contrast with the reds, always with this rhythm that unfolds and makes the visual journey more manageable. We could take the journey from back to front to make the artwork more immersive.

This painter, drawing so much from the late 1800s and early 1900s Italian painters, adopts from Impressionism the technique of painting Alla Prima. It’s evident in brushstrokes where colors mix a bit. The previous layers aren’t allowed to dry completely, allowing the colors to blend.

It’s executed with a high level of mastery, managing to separate the colors when necessary or allowing them to blend when deemed fit to create different shades of similar colors.

It wouldn’t suffice to simply analyze this artwork; it would be interesting to explore the collection of the artist’s other works because it’s very rich and rewarding to observe. Additionally, it’s a valuable tool for painters to immerse themselves in a wide range of artworks, particularly in pictorial art.

In this case, the artist’s gallery of paintings is very rich and can serve us well in training our eye as we apply what we learn.

The painter states that he works from memory. I believe there must be a mix of memory and observation as well. Nowadays, with photography, it’s easier. We don’t have to take our easel to the location to paint, although it seems like the painter could have done that.

What I was getting at is that there’s a complexity in the composition due to so many right angles, which can make it difficult to create this type of work freehand. To accomplish this kind of piece (depending on the canvas), there are different techniques involving using a kind of ruler that we move in parallel, similar to the old drafting tables that had movable rulers to maintain consistent angles.

Here, some kind of technique like this needs to be employed, or using a thread fixed at a point outside the frame to determine which perspectives to use, or simply keeping the ruler parallel.

It’s not exactly parallel; there’s some freedom for the artist to establish the perspective. But it’s always important to have some tool to keep the lines straight.

Once we have these rules established, following them accurately with the brush is purely a matter of practice. It requires a lot of practice to be precise in respecting these lines in relation to their edges. It’s easy, it just takes practice, but it can be achieved, even though we’re talking about a very gifted artist in this case.

I hope this article is useful to you. We invite you to leave your comments or opinions about this great artist.

You may also be interested in: HOW TO MAKE AN EASY AND DYNAMIC SKETCH

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