As a British artist who works mainly on portraits and historical paintings, Gabriel J. Lewis decided to settle in Palmerino for a few weeks to work on landscape painting.

VERONIKA BROMBERG.

An Encaustic Collage Artist. New York City, 2026. Veronika Bromberg, an artist from New York, spent two weeks this summer at Il Palmerino, devoting her time entirely to her art, escaping the daily routine of life back in New York. She hopes to bring back with her across the Atlantic the ability to slow down, live in the moment, and focus on her art. Veronika is an encaustic collage artist. She works with rich pigments that are wax-based, melting them to create a luminous, mul

IRENA KONGSUWAN.

Drawing vessels inside spaces. Irena Kongsuwan is an expressive drawer and painter from Canada who was in residence at Il Palmerino during the summer of 2026. Her goal for the residency was to reignite her art practice, which had taken a back seat to her full-time job and family life. Her artistic career began thirty years ago, shortly after high school. She went on to earn a Fine Arts degree, specializing in painting and drawing. The technique Irena focuses on is chalk paste

DANA MATTHEWS.

Art in connection to the land. Dana Matthews is a painter and photographer from New York, who was in residence at Il Palmerino in the spring of 2026. Born in Alabama, Dana has a special connection to the land and environment which she brings into her work. As the first artist in her family Dana explored painting and photography on her own to discover her passion. With a BFA and MFA in photography she creates visuals that transcend one medium and incorporates painting into her

PAMELA TUCKER.

Still-life painter at Il Palmerino. In March and April 2026, Il Palmerino was delighted to host the artist Pamela Tucker, a still- life painter, who came to the estate recommended by her gallery in New York City. Art has always played an important role in Pamela’s life. She graduated from college in Art History, worked for years as a Graphic Designer, and most recently has dedicated herself to painting. She has participated in several residencies both in the United States and

SOFYA KARMAZINA.

Illustrator for Children's Books. In spring 2026, Il Palmerino hosted Sofya Karmazina, an Australian creator currently based in Spain, for a three-week residency. An illustrator as well as a graphic and book designer, she creates picture books for children that are published internationally and translated into different languages. Her work has been recognised by several Australian awards, including the CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2025. The illustrator decided to come to Il P

JULIA POLETTI.

Introducing a September Resident Artist. For the last three weeks, artist Julia Poletti has dedicated her stay at Il Palmerino to drawing and finding inspiration in the rich architecture of Florence. She describes her short stay as pure happiness, allowing her to slow down, reflect, and create artworks that capture the beauty of the Tuscan landscape. Born in Russia, Julia discovered her love of drawing at a very young age and planned to attend art school. The economic and po

BARBARA PETIT LISY.

Capturing Tuscanys Landscape. One of our September artist residents, Barbara came to Palmerino with the goal of capturing the beauty of the Tuscan landscape. Which she first discovered about twelve years ago during a romantic journey through a region she deeply loves. The artist admits to being enchanted by the typical rolling hills and vineyards, the local vegetation, stone pines, cypresses, the ochre-toned villas with their elegant architecture, nestled into the greenery. B

KIM REN.

Lawyer, Engineer and Designer. At Il Palmerino, Canadian artist Kim Ren is not seen as an engineer or a lawyer –but as a designer. Her time in Florence allowed her to fully embrace a lifelong facet of her identity that has accompanied her since childhood. As a child, Kim found delight in making things with her hands—her earliest memory of this being the afternoon she stitched a dining table cushion under her mother’s guidance. The joy of that small creation lingered with her,

ANGELICA ROWE.

Australian artist Angelica Rowe came to Italy, specifically the Palmerino for a change of pace. After working in the fast past ad agency world, she was burnt out. Angelica had intended to come to Florence back in 2020 for a three month Design Master Workshop. However, Covid-19 put her plans on hold. Five years later her partner encouraged her to fulfill her Italian dreams. Rowe studied Design and Commercial Art at Griffith College of Art and at CATC in Brisbane, Australia

JERUSHA WEST.

United Kingdom. July, 2025 In July 2025, British visual artist and filmmaker Jerusha West spent 6 weeks in residence at Palmerino. For Jerusha, it was a moment of stillness and space, a pause from the intensity of city life in London, and a chance to reconnect with her multidisciplinary practice in a calm and creative setting. Jerusha began her formal art education with a Foundation course at Central Saint Martins, before going on to study at The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL

SHARON SMITH.

Clay and circularity. 2014 / 2025 Sharon Smith first came to Il Palmerino over a decade ago. Recently, she returned to the property as part of her travels across Europe to attend a variety of ceramic and clay workshops as part of her focus on the "circularity" of clay—a process which focuses on connecting finished clay works to the land they were created from. Sharon Sculpting Clay Originally from Australia, Sharon’s connection to ceramics started young. As she recalls, her m

BECKY STRIEGLER.

Freeing the Spirit. Becky Striegler Becky Striegler is a Canadian artist from the Yukon who spent the spring of 2025 in residence at Il Palmerino. After graduating with a degree in journalism in 1982, Becky spent her career in an dynamic environment, working as a journalist, policy analyst, radio host and producer, interviewer and creative writer for almost 35 years. She continued writing, and began to explore art after her retirement in 2016. Although she felt deep connectio

JOLINE KWAKKENBOS.

Behind the headscarf: Joline Kwakkenbos is a Dutch painter and writer who spent a month at Il Palmerino, between March and April. She occupied the lovely blue room, the one overlooking the street of Il Palmerino, which comes to an end a few hundred meters further on. Imbued with a fin–de–siècle atmosphere, and often wearing a distinctive headscarf, Joline is an artist for whom fashion, and even more so, craftsmanship, are essential, and a part of her work as a self–portraitis

NICHOLAS LOUIS TANG.

Hong Kong - London. Nicholas Tang is an English independent painter and art historian, with his family roots from Hong Kong and Shanghai. As a traditionalist and figurative painter, his interest in painting developed from a young age, after his mother took him to visit the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, and he found that he “responded to few things in the way [he] responded to painting.” Though Nicholas began as a draughtsman, a teacher at his school in England

LUCIA KAGRAMANYAN.

Armenia, February 2024. Farewell to Lucia Kagramanyan, one of the artists in residence here at Il Palmerino this month. Lucia currently attends the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and is completing her third degree program which will earn her a degree in the fine arts; following programs in economics and critical studies. She is a multimedia artist, and explores her creativity across many fields including conceptual art, photography and capture, archiving, sound, film, and radio.

NANCY SANDLER BASS.

New York , April 2023. In the words of Georgia O’Keeffe “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way–things I had no words for.” Nicely represent Nancy Sandler Bass, a New York painter we are proud to have hosted here in residence at Il Palmerino. Painting since she was a teenager, it was the moment she touched the brushes and paint, she knew she had found herself. Painting was her first great love. Surrounded by the spectacular views an

CHARLIE ALLEN.

Salem – USA 2012 / 2014 / 2017 Charlie, a figurative painter working in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife Christine, has come to Il Palmerino several times, but the couple’s frequent travels in Europe has allowed them to become very close with various locations and deepen their understanding through experiencing, particularly of Florence and Tuscany, even in a limited time. This progressive closeness has created a strong bond between us, and being able to host and welcome Ch

SUSAN DUCA.

Newport United States, Gangi Italia. Since 2007. Susan's visits are now season-long and have been repeated since the beginning of our history. Sometimes they are short stays, just to recharge her batteries, other times she has made longer residencies in which she has always been an active resource for the association. Through her camera, her eye discovers the Palmerino and its surroundings behind the scenes, between the folds of the fabric less apparent but present to the sen

DONNA VEVERKA & JAMES HULL.

Boston USA 2007 / 2009 / 2011/ 2015 James Hull and Donna Veverka arrived at the Palmerino for a first stay in 2007. Welcomed on arrival with a lunch in the garden with other very sociable residents, they fitted in naturally, immediately becoming actively involved in helping us with our first ideas, so much so that James and Donna offered to make the panels to create the first exhibition in the hall of the villa for a small exhibition of a group of contemporary Japanese artist

NICOLE BLAU.

New York, USA 2008 / 2010 / 2012 Nicole, a New Yorker with a Tuscan heart and a Jewish soul, holds, with her art deeply reflecting her experience, these three flames together and creative developing a very personal and original "signature". She has been to the Palmerino several times, sharing with us initial moments of happiness and sadness and living our daily life as a family without ever being intrusive, but rather a supportive presence for our first period of artistic com

PAUL FUSCO.

New York, USA 2008 / 2009 In August 2008, thanks to photographer Federico Busonero, we organised an international photography workshop directed by Paul Fusco, from the prestigious Magnum Agency in New York. It saw the participation of Anne Sanciaud-Avanza (curator at the Bibliothèque Nazionale de France, in Paris), Andrea Ulivi (Edizioni della Meridiana and director of the Andrei Tarkovskij International Institute in Florence) and Federico Busonero himself, a

KELLY MEDFORD.

USA / Rome 2013 / 2016 / 2019 Kelly is an adoptive Italian, who made her home in Rome, after setting up her studio there. She is a 'free outside painter', whose lively personality and curiosity has allowed her to master the Italian language and culture, as well as gain an in-depth understanding of the artistic sensibility characterising the cities she loves – Florence, Rome and the whole of Italy! Her arrival at Il Palmerino generally coincides with that of her long-time frie

STEPHEN COPLAND.

Sydney, Australia 2012 Return to Artists > Together with his wife, art curator Meredith Brice, Stephen came to Il Palmerino on a European sabbatical that lasted several months and began with an art residency in Paris. He arrived here during an uncommonly nice January and took advantage of his stay to get to know Florence and its treasures very well. Beyond routine visits to the Uffizi and the Accademia Gallery, Stephen’s stay included visits the city'