Anne Tedeschi
Ferryville, Wisconsin
 

In a rich, full life spanning seven decades, Anne Tedeschi has found plenty to distract herself from the thing in life she feels driven to do.

“I’ve painted all my life,” she says, “but I’ve never really concentrated on it.” Instead, she built a career, traveled overseas, and raised three children. Now, at 73, she’s finally found her focus. “I thought, ‘My time is getting short. I’d better get to it,’” she says.

Tedeschi lives on a 250-acre farm, Dog Hollow, that nestles into the lush Rush Creek valley, a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River near Ferryville. She and husband John retired here in 1996, though she has owned and worked this land since 1969.

Three generations reside at Dog Hollow: her youngest daughter and son-in-law live with their two children across the lane. There’s always a bustle to the farm—this year her grandchildren are planting a garden and selling its harvest at the farmers’ market.

In spite of such pleasant diversions, Tedeschi has created a studio space and set herself the task of capturing the beauty of life in watercolor. A charming cottage on Dog Hollow serves as her library and studio, with books filling the walls from floor to ceiling.

Tedeschi’s career was as a book preservationist; for years she restored worn out books, some of them hundreds of years old. This process cultivated her gift for detail. On the side, she collaborates with her husband, a historian whose immediate family came to this country from Florence and Ferrara before Italy entered WWII. The two have translated eight Italian texts over the years, with John translating and Anne editing.

In an inviting half-loft in the cottage, Tedeschi has created an inspiring nook with perfect lighting as her studio. The approach to painting that she has honed in this room is daring yet firm.

Tedeschi showed an early talent for watercolor, which was encouraged by her artist mother. Later in her youth, she studied with Loring Coleman, a nationally acclaimed realist and watercolorist. Tedeschi recently renewed her friendship with Coleman and they enjoy an exuberant correspondence. Tedeschi is inspired by him to this day and proudly displays his work in her studio. “He is 89 and still painting,” she says.

Her subjects are often landscapes; her primary interest is nature, or more specifically, the captivating patterns that light and nature produce. Her choice of color is influenced by her time spent in Italy, and she captures these natural designs with subtle grace: Muted grays and blues marry the soft orange of a hushed country sunset; silver and white trace gossamer threads of moonlight through a bare tree’s russet limbs.

Tedeschi shows her work at VIVA Gallery in Viroqua, an artist cooperative. She is an active member of the group, and often handles its public relations.

Through the coop, Tedeschi teaches classes to children, and for the past five years has facilitated a county-wide children’s art show featuring submissions from all ages. This beloved display is currently hanging in the Driftless Café in Viroqua. She has her
own collection of works from the children’s shows on display in her bindery.