Adele Travisano

Paintings

The St. Francis Series

G. K. Chesterton wrote of St. Francis of Assisi: “Never was any man so little afraid of his promises. His life was one riot of rash vows: of rash vows that turned out right.”

Several years ago I went to a convent for a personal retreat. Outside my window was a statue of St. Francis, looking down, a bird on his shoulder, another at his feet. I knew that St. Francis was the patron saint of animals; that was all I knew. Did the statue represent his spirit?

The convent library had the Chesterton book. Thus began my relationship with St. Francis. I could feel his spirit: it was alive. His life work sprang from energy. This was exciting stuff for an expressionist painter.

Having studied with Hans Hofmann’s student, George McNeil, I am a product of the New York School of abstract expressionism. The content of my painting is an exploration of plasticity of paint; push-pull of space; defining of form, space, and light by color; movement of color and rhythm throughout. The content in the St. Francis series is about his life and equally about these other elements.

Often I set St. Francis in my garden. While painting, I feel into the life of the subjects, namely, the plants and the circumstances of the particular St. Francis episode. Then I transform those experiences of the life and energy I feel into paint. The entire process is about the transformation of matter and energy.

Each painting is a being unto itself. There is no manufacturing of a series for the sake of a series. This process is something I owe not only to St. Francis, my garden, myself, past and future painters, but to that life, that energy I hope to express.

[Paintings marked with a black dot (•) are sold.]

To read the stories behind the St. Francis paintings, click here.