Wendy James​ and Howard Itzkowitz

UK – USA

2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 – 2021

Wendy and her husband Howard Itzkowitz have become regular visitors to Il Palmerino. Wendy’s residencies take place in any season, and we like to call her ‘our youngest artist ever’. Her British wit has been tamed by a long stay in the United States and her creative exuberance is the driving force behind her large family’s development. Through her art, she seems to have the ability to seek renewal with the lightness of a butterfly, time and time again.

Her creative process progresses, as she tests her skills and follows her passions. Initially, it seemed, her artistic research was drawn to abstractionism in nature, as she embarked on a shape-based quest, accompanied by chromatic and material research. Later, however, she would feel the need to return to the figurative art, combining mixed media and alternative media. In fact, in her first body of works, displayed at the exhibition 'Seasons', and the series displayed the following spring, in 2017, one can see how the artist’s gaze is drawn to details that become multi-faceted and imaginative places. Over time, Wendy has started to depict images as they emerge in her imagination. The reading of Dante's Inferno, in translation, found on a shelf in her flat’s bookcase, triggered a new cycle of works inspired by the maestro's canticles.

Howard, on the other hand, more unobtrusive with his notebook and pencil, likes to draw details and small buildings and rural compositions that come from his background as a professor of architectural drawing. He has a clean, skillful line that also manages to balance Wendy's spirited invention. Hers are the timely documentation of garden corners and a set of studies to make a house for ducks out of bamboo. Which we always wish we could accomplish under her guidance.

Wendy and Howard hanno avuto a generous approach, nel workshops, with a class of students from the Liceo Artistico Alberti, a secondary school in Florence, whose students are struck by her inspiring and unconventional teaching methods e dalla accurata lezione di prospettiva di Howard. With a wink, she is now telling us she will not stop going back to Il Palmerino, until she manages to get as far as Paradise... ma senza l'aiuto di Howard non ci potrebbe arrivare!

In her own words

"In this chaotic world, Il Palmerino gives me kindness and intellect and possibilities."