Gigi Ettedgui

Gigi Ettedgui

At 27, after watching Kenneth Clark's Civilisation in Covid lockdown and remembering an art trip there as a teenager, I decided to change my life and move to Florence. I was accepted by the Charles Cecil Studio and spent three years learning about classical oil painting techniques and painting from life and sight size. I return as often as I can to a city I think of as my spiritual home ...I feel very lucky to have been taught by Charles and the other brilliant painters in such a beautiful tradition that traces its roots back to Titian and Velasquez. Painting from life to the scale of life under natural light, the canvas is placed alongside the sitter with the painter standing at a distance. It's about knowing where to stand and how to see. And contrary to what many think, incredibly liberating. I moved back to London in September 2024 when I was offered a space in the St Paul's studios in Talgarth Road, surrounded by a wonderful community of artists and friends (and a studio cat.)I paint portraits, still lives and works from imagination. I do accept commissions of both portraits and still lives. For portrait commissions, prices start from £3000. I treat the flowers I paint like the models I paint. I place the flower alongside the canvas, more like portrait sitting than a still life. There is a greater sense of urgency and intensity when I paint a flower as there is no need to stop for a tea break or converse. And because I have only a very small window of time before the flower dies, these works have to be painted intensely and vigorously. I find the flowers at their most beautiful the moment before they die …when it's fully blown. It is the same time pressure when I paint a blossom or a bud. I only paint from life and with natural light. To commission a portrait or a still life painting (prices vary) lgigiettedgui@mac.com. I paint from life under natural light, so this means multiple sittings at my studio on the Talgarth Road.