An innate gift for drawing manifests itself as early as adolescence, but without the
awareness that generally invites further exploration of the gift. Indeed, he only needs to
observe an object in person or through a photo to reproduce it exactly. His right hand with
a pencil works miracles, but to him it seems like one thing among many. Like driving a nail
into wood with a hammer.
This led him to neglect the expressive world of images and pursue other paths. In fact, he
graduates in political science in Rome and undertakes the freelance profession of labor
consultant.
Colors have always instilled a certain reverential awe in him, but at the age of 63 the
unexpected happens. A strange coincidence leads him to make his first painting.
The reader of this biography will wonder where that impulse to pick up paintbrushes came
from. Something unexpected and completely out of context from his administrative office
life.
But in partial compensation for just curiosity, it must be said that good things sometimes
need time to come to fruition.
To understand this turning point, it may help to know that something inside him has always
driven him to take an interest in art in general, but especially in painting. In his spare time
he spends hours reading critical articles about famous painters of various eras, and
obsessively observing their paintings, acquiring the familiarity with the world of color that
will suddenly prove useful.
As the inveterate traveler that he is, he visits the most important museums in Europe and
the United States, although those experiences leave him dissatisfied with the too-fast pace
typical of forays into the temples of art.
Then with the advent of the Internet, his curiosity for painting found the necessary
deepening.
So, returning to the turning point toward the immense joy of painting, we can say that it
comes when he instinctively decides to test the in-depth culture of art history accumulated
over the years.
He starts first with tempera colors on cardboard because they seeme less complicated for
him to use. Then he slowly switches to oil on canvas in search of greater brilliance. The
first few times he experiments and accumulates mistakes, such as when he happens to
use more linseed oil than necessary and the painting takes six months to dry.
Until he switches to the use of acrylic on canvas to achieve a more modern aesthetic
effect.
In summary, he is an educated self-taught artist, influenced mainly by Impressionism,
Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Pop Art.
However, the master who literally turns him inside out is the contemporary British painter
David Hockney. His paintings teach him to dare with the palette, imagining bold, unheard-
of colors, moving him away from slavishly reproducing nature to enhance its beauty while
never giving up conveying personal intensity on canvas.
In this he, along with Hockney, shows himself faithful to what Vincent Van Gogh wrote in
one of his many letters to his brother Theo: "One loses the harmony of nature by chasing a
painfully exact imitation of it.
Thus come his paintings of bright, vibrant colors, with a preference toward the direct
juxtaposition of different hues versus the dominant practice of shading. In his poetic world,
shadows give way to vibrant light, whether social and political themes or simply portraits.
In his later years he makes many paintings, giving away some, selling others.
He also participates in some group exhibitions such as one inside a clothing store in the
urban center of his hometown (Terracina), or in Rome in an art gallery on Via Margutta
and in Forte dei Marmi at the Ugo Guidi Museum.
Those with interest can visit his youtube and instagram accounts at the following
addresses:
https://www.youtube.com/@mauriziorecchia/videos
https://www.instagram.com/recchia.maurizio/
