Filippo Quaretti

Born in Italy, Filippo’s childhood was spent in the bomb ravaged city of La Spezia. Toys were bottle caps, games consisted of Cops and Robbers played out in the streets and around Piazza Brin. The city may have been dark and sad but Filippo’s life was filled with love from his poet mother and older concert pianist sister. It is from these strong women that Filippo learned to look for the light and color in every stage of life.

Tragedy first struck Filippo too early to remember, with the loss of his father, but it was the death of his mother when he was nine years old that would alter his life trajectory forever. With a change of continents, a change of language and a change of families, Filippo turned to painting his childhood memories, filling them with the light and color reminiscent of his mother and sister. Thus began a decades long exploration of the intensity of light and the power of shadows.

After graduate studies at New York University Filippo packed up and moved to the West Coast seeking the light and colors nowhere to be found in New York City. The severity of the Malibu Canyons became his color inspirations and the Pacific Ocean, with its sandy beaches, were his favorite subjects. He became well known in the area and his Malibu beach scenes with lifeguard towers were in high demand. His work was shown in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Young Artists Program and is still prized in such prestigious personal collections as those of Ms. Annie Getty, Ms. Jean Huntington, Mr. Eliot Gould, Mr. Giorgio Baldi and Dr. Eduardo Verruno. Many of the paintings in these collections are from Filippo’s “chiaroscuro” or “shadow-minimalism” period which ended shortly after his move to France.

The spectacular light in the South of France had a huge influence on Filippo’s work. He developed a lust for color, realized new visions and total freedom of artistic expression. The colors of the wine, flowers, fruits and the red earth of Provence that gave inspiration to the Fauvists were still alive and working their magic for Filippo. Exploring the village antique markets and ‘vide-greniers’ brought many surprise finds, chief among them Japanese prints and art pieces that touched Filippo’s inner need for organization and order.

Filippo’s work today blends these sentiments into a new vision, through a meticulous mosaic technique by extensive use of layered under-paintings juxtaposed against the intense color tones in the foreground. Color fragments in an abstract tapestry, which are as important as the subject.

Today Filippo’s studio is on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by the beautiful colors and ever changing light of life on Florida’s Gulf Coast.