Francesca Neri

Francesca Neri spent eight years on scaffolds inside Tuscan churches, working as a fresco restorer and cleaning centuries-old walls a few square inches at a time. Trained at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, she learned patience, a light hand, and a deep respect for color that has softened with age. The faded, chalky hues she uncovered day after day never left her, and today, from her home in Lucca, Italy, she paints with the same quiet attention she once gave to saints and angels on plaster.

Her subject is a calm, sunlit Italy painted in that same pale light key: a lemon branch leaning over a still lake, a white lane winding down to the sea, a single pale sail drifting on the Adriatic. Working in oil laid down in thin glazes, she lets the canvas breathe through the paint, blending the gentle brushwork of Impressionism with the open space of Minimalism. The result is serene, airy art that feels at home in a bright living room, a restful bedroom, a sunny kitchen, or a hallway that could use a window onto the Mediterranean. Below are Neri’s canvases in our shop, ready to hang.