Blue is the predominant color in the paintings by Raffaella Calcagnini, well known and recognized by many. “I will arrive in the sky through that part of blue” is the title of my recent book of poetry; when for the first time I was lucky enough to meet Raffaella and admire her paintings, I immediately compared her pictorial art, where blue, white, gray dominate the scene, to those bright spaces that I encountered crossing the plain of Castelluccio di Norcia; there the strong colors of the valley mix with the soft colors of the clear blue of the sky, the white-milk of the clouds, and the light gray of the Sibillini mountains. Raffaella Calcagnini is a young and brilliant lady who lives and works in Fano. She attended the “Apolloni” Institute of Art and obtained a Diploma from the Academy of Arts in Urbino. She spent his youth in Montemaggiore al Metauro, where she certainly treasured the history and the beauty of the place: on the “hill of the Carthaginians” her pictorial art began to grow. Giampaolo Baldelli says of her: «I remember Raffaella with great affection, I was her teacher of Mathematics and Science in middle school, she was a solar girl, very curious and eager for affection. As an artist I remember her as President of the local Pro Loco when a painting exhibition was organized with artists of Montemaggiore, for the project “Art in the hills”: her works, full of light and blue, were to indicate her continuous research up and towards the universe, where her soul turns her gaze to find feelings and sensations that life has denied her as a girl. ” The pictorial technique that she uses to make his paintings is very simple and has no secrets, she uses oil colors and paints on plywood boards of various sizes. In addition to the “local” exhibitions including the “Accolta dei Quindici” in Fano in 1997 and 1998, Calcagnini also boasts exhibitions abroad: Barcelona (Spain), Paris, Antibes (France). She also realized some “Trompe l’oeil” (which literally means “to deceive the eye”), pictorial art of which she is skilled interpreter, that to the observer makes three-dimensional what in reality is two-dimensional. In 2006 she also illustrated the children’s book “The magic of wheat”. It is very difficult to explain and describe the artistic peculiarities of a painter, it is like telling a sunset, one must absolutely see it! In front of a painting like “Ascesi” or “Al di là del sé”, Calcagnini shows all the strength of his style. Beyond the images, I feel the presence of the tormented but serene soul of the artist where spirit-matter, reality-fantasy, space-infinity, joy-sadness, hope-despair are in eternal conflict, as in life.
Piero Talevi
Il Giornale del Metauro