Life & Works

Stefania Orru was born in Jesi in March 1976.

At the age of 18, Stefania left Jesi and her family to enroll in the Faculty of Arts in Urbino, then subsequently in Verona and Perugia. During her early years at college, Stefania discovered painting as a means of expression and from then on this became a central theme in her life. In 1997, Stefania moved to Umbria where she worked for about seven years under the master Elvio Marchionni, where she learnt the fresco and mural painting techniques.

Stefania Orru`

Stefania Orru` was born in Jesi in March 1976.

In 1995 she received the diploma di maturita` magistrale and enrolled at the university of Urbino to study literature and philosophy. This culminated an early fervent passion since the age of ten for literature that was to see her win a prize for poetry at a national level as well as being published in various local newspapers.

During her first year at university she bore the interest for figurative art. It was, in fact, at Urbino where she was to make friends with members of the Accademia d'Arte as she began to frequent the course in sculpture and model-making resulting in several sculptures.

In 1996 she left Urbino and transferred to Verona where she was to develop and consolidate her passion for Art. She began to collaborate with the painter Maria Girelli Bruni on a commission for a local villa mansion using mural and alfresco techniques which led in turn to her own commissions for local residences.

In 1997 another transfer brought her to Umbria where she continued her work in Interior design for the Architect Mauro Mazzolini that was to lead her into the realms of abstract art gaining her commissioned paintings in both Milan and Venice.

It was during this period that she began a long lasting and ongoing working relationship with the local Maestro Artist of Spello, Elvio Marchionni whose works are included in the Vatican and Louvre.

In 1998 She had her first solo exhibition in S.G. Lupatoto, near Verona which was to go on to the city itself in various locales over the pursuing month, laying the foundations for what has become a very intensive working period.

Stefania has exhibited in:

• Foggia, Bevagna, A.S.Salvatore
• Siena, Ancona, Bari, Poggi Bonsi
• Siena, Padova, Milano, Spoleto, Orta S. Giulio
• Novara, Assisi, Castiglione D'Orcia
• Siena, Piancastagnaio
• Siena, Vieste
• Siena, Sirolo
• Ancona.

Stefania Orru has naturally, the ability to express. She manages, through her work, to offer not only a definition of life's modern texture as we wish to see it but sets it against a backdrop that we want instantly to recognize. A texture that we all desire and at the same time profess to know, her paintings are, rich in color, definition, expression and tension; movement and yet, stability. A background visual contrast that is enviable, she uses, and has developed, a technique that is, in some ways, as old as art itself. By 'scratching on the wall' her use of design on plaster is re- revolutionary for the époque that art today is under going. In a style no way easily mimic-able, either for its depth or solidity, she adds color upon color, sometimes with the brush, sometimes with pastels, crayon, oils, spray, pen and pencil, forever blending and shading; work that admits respect for the past and love of the future. Her work is as much about the medium she chooses to express herself in as the images she portrays.

They are always warm, inviting, strong and sensual, particularly suited to the artist's adopted technique of alfresco and change continually whilst subjected to the different light form we live our lives by. She demonstrates an ability to portray, sometimes, a human form in many of its evocative guises; interpretations that are at times vulnerable and both natural and sexual; always beautiful.

The Serie Tinelle pictures of the artist are an exploration in as much as she chooses this time to substitute alfresco for photo on aluminum. She then reworks the surface, as she does on plaster arriving again at a point of perfect modernity.

Stefania's original focus was for the written word. Whilst studying Literature and Philosophy at the University of Urbino she began to realize that a desire for more practical artistic expression was emerging. Transferring to Verona, she took her art more seriously and began using both mural and alfresco technique.

Arriving in Umbria in 1997 she began to collaborate with the Architect Mauro Mazzolini gaining commissions in both Milan and Venice as well as working out an arduous apprenticeship over the next seven years for the Maestro Elvio Marchionni, whose works are included in both Vatican and Louvre. Stefania has exhibited in:

• Assisi,
• Ancona
• Bari
• Castiglione D'Orcia
• Foggia, Grosseto, Milan
• Padova, Piancastagnaio
• Poggi Bonsi
• Orta S. Giulio
• Rome
• Siena
• Sirolo,
• Spoleto
• Venice and Vieste

She returns to Rome to exhibit for The House of Pino Purificato in October 2006.

Stefania has developed a personal style within her technique of fresco that no one does as well, if indeed at all. She cleverly prepares the plaster on cloth that is then stuck to wooden boards that she has previously prepared. This is one of the crucial and most enjoyable moments of the process for the artist as she decides what way to lay the 'canvass' and how its form will become the picture. Ripping, tearing, cutting, scrapping are all actions that spring to mind as she begins to formulate the design, be it for abstract or body form. Allowing the board to dry for at least a day, she now decides to go on to the next stage or to re-plaster, building on the layers that are now beginning to emerge. When she is satisfied she allows the base to re-dry if necessary and begins to think of colors that will provide the actual basis for the picture. She is not restrained in what she uses, be it oil, spray, paint, or crayon to create the layered textures that some art critics have said are pictures in their own right.

The board must dry again to allow the now colored re-wetted plaster time to harden. Now she begins to paint and draw. The subject matter becomes the final statement in a lengthy, time consuming, but worthwhile, process that results in something more that just a picture.