This week we are excited to present you with a short video featuring Daniela Astone, Director of the Intermediate Program at The Florence Academy of Art.

Artist and educator, Daniela Astone paints what is outside her door each morning during lockdown. On October 8th 2020, Daniela began to escape into the dawn of each new day, to rediscover the power of imagination. In her own words, “Every big change begins with knowing how to imagine it.” A year has passed, and on October 7th 2021, Daniela completed her project.

These beautiful 365 paintings will be exhibited in New York at the Sugarlift Gallery (508 W 28th St., New York, NY 10001), and also online at www.sugarlift.com from October 14th until November 13th.

Here are Daniela’s own words about her project:

“The ‘Albe’ project (alba means dawn in Italian) begins on the eve of the second lockdown in Italy.

Each day is born each time in a different way. It arises from a desire to escape the daily routine, and a need to set in motion within oneself, when the stimulus cannot from the outside, a different way of experiencing the world.

The ritual of getting up before dawn (somewhat tiring) to honor life awakened in me the curiosity and desire to question what were, up until that moment, only affirmations.

After a year without a social life, I rediscovered the power of imagination.

Every important change begins with knowing how to imagine it.

It is assumed that the first cave paintings had the purpose, as a propitiatory ritual, to facilitate the hunt that would take place the next day, and so have I discovered the imaginary within, until now unexpressed, my initiation ritual. 365 Sunrises from October 8th, 2020 to October 7th, 2021.”

“Il progetto delle Albe inizia alla vigilia del secondo lock down in Italia.

Nasce da un desiderio di fuggire da una routine quotidiana ed una necessità di essere propulsori di se stessi laddove lo stimolo, non potendo venire dall’esterno, scaturisce da un modo diverso di vedere il mondo.

Il giorno ogni volta nasce in maniera diversa.

Il rituale (un po’ faticoso) di alzarsi prima dell’alba per onorare la vita ha risvegliato in me curiosità e la voglia di mettere dei punti interrogativi laddove fino a quel momento c’erano solo affermazioni.

Dopo un anno in assenza di vita sociale ho riscoperto il potere dell’immaginazione.

Ogni grande cambiamento inizia con il saper immaginarselo.

Si suppone che le prime pitture rupestri avessero lo scopo, come rituale propiziatorio, di agevolare la caccia che avrebbe avuto luogo il giorno dopo e così Il bisogno di riscoprire l’immaginario dentro me finora inespresso ha trovato il suo rituale di iniziazione. 365 Albe dal 8 ottobre 2020 al 7 Ottobre 2021.”

More about Daniela:

Daniela Astone ( b.1980 Pisa, Italy) was was raised in Porto Santo Stefano, a costal town south of Florence. She began studying art at the age of 14 at the High School for Visual Arts in Grosseto. After graduating in 1997, she moved to Florence to study Illustration at the International School of Comix, while working independently for several editors, and in the Florentine studio, Inklink.

At the age of 21, Daniela changed direction, and enrolled at The Florence Academy of Art, where she began studying drawing and painting from life, under the direction of Daniel Graves. During her second year, she began teaching students enrolled in the Academy’s Intensive Drawing Program, and graduated from the Painting Program in 2004, winning Best Painting of the Year. In September of the same year, Daniela became a Principal Instructor at The Florence Academy of Art, and in 2013, was named Director of the Intermediate Program.

Starting with her first and very successful solo show at the Ann Long Fine Art Gallery in Charleston in 2005, Daniela has since exhibited regularly in the U.S. and worldwide. Her work is part of the permanent collection of MACS, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sicily. She was finalist in the BP Prize in London, and received honorable mention at the Mod Portrait Awards in Spain. In 2019, together with fellow FAA alum, Gaia Grazioli, Daniela curated “Corpo a Corpo”, an exhibition of contemporary realist artists, at the Museum of Villa Bardini in Florence, in collaboration with the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze and Italian art critic, Carlo Sisi. Daniela has also collaborated with TIAC (China), Liveandlearn (Thailand), East Oaks Studio (US), and Streamline Videos.

Daniela teaches landscape painting in her studio-house in Chianti, in the Tuscan countryside, where she also paints in her private studio.

To view more of Daniela’s work please visit:

Website: www.daniela-astone.com

Instagram: @daniela_astone

FAA Alumni Gallery: Daniela Astone