The beauty of Italy has inspired countless artists through the years, including ones who live here in the United States. Today, I am profiling artist William Renzulli, who was moved to paint his ancestral home Castelnuovo della Daunia in Puglia after a family reunion visit in 2008 and who will soon be headed to Bologna to paint that city’s gorgeous medieval lines and curves as well as the landscapes of Emilia-Romagna.
You may recognize William Renzulli’s surname as it is exactly the same as mine. Yes…Bill Renzulli is my distant cousin, related to my husband’s side of the family. I have actually never met Bill in person, though we “found” each other online several years ago because of our love for Italy and our similar last name.
Bill provided a detailed account of his visit to the small village of Castelnuovo on his blog Reflections on a Life in Medicine & Art, which also chronicles his love of food, his painting process, family, and life in Paducah, Kentucky, the artist-friendly community in which he lives. He also provides links to many of his beautiful paintings, several of which are Italy-related, while many others are abstracts and U.S. cityscapes and landscapes made in acrylic or watercolors. Bill is quite a prolific and dedicated painter, as you will see if you check out the gallery on renzulliart.com.
As mentioned above, Bill will be Bologna bound in May. Here he describes his goals for the visit:
My goal it to seek inspiration and gather new reference material for future paintings and I plan to get out into the countryside with my camera. But what I am most excited about is the opportunity to do a lot of sketching in the city, streetscapes, architectural, and the general busyness of the city shops and storefronts.
This seems like a lovely proposition. I love the look of Bologna, with its arcaded walkways and leaning towers and know that Bill will capture these icons of the city quite well.
Last updated on May 17th, 2023Post first published on February 17, 2010
