TWO ARTISTS LIVING AND WORKING IN IDYLLIC ST. AUGUSTINE
The quiet beauty of their rural homestead studios provide Enzo and Gayle with the ideal location to create artwork. Enzo enjoys sculpting in his outdoor studio and Gayle alternates between her various art endeavors and gardening. Studio time is punctuated by breaks for espresso and light talk about the technical challenges of the day.
Friends occasionally join them for these al fresco moments under the trees on the patio. Summers are often time for travel to Enzo’s home country of Italy where they maintain studios for making art. Enzo frequently joins artists friends there for group exhibition.
A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WORKS
Enzo Torcoletti was born in Italy and attended art school there before he moved to Canada where he received a B.A. in English Literature in 1968 and a B.F.A. in Sculpture and Printmaking in 1969 from the University of Windsor. In 1971 he completed his M.F.A. in Sculpture at Florida State University then moved to St. Augustine Florida where he still Resides. Currently he is an Emeritus Professor of Art at Flagler College where he has taught Sculpture, Drawing, and Art History since 1971.
Deeply involved with sculpture production, exhibits, and commissions, his work has been shown extensively and is included in numerous private and public collections here and abroad. His sculpture has been featured in several publications including The Sculpture Reference Book and two other textbooks on Sculpture by Arthur Williams.
Enzo’s personal work and commissions are carried out in a variety of media. His latest large projects were a 15 ft. bronze and marble commission for the Baptist Medical Center Lobby in Jacksonville and a 10 ft. marble sculpture for the I.R.S. Customer Service Center in Chamblee, Georgia, which was commissioned by the General Services Administration.
Earlier commissions include a forty-foot, fifty-ton granite sculpture for The Koger Center in Jacksonville Florida and a similar one for Kings Hill in Kent, England. Torcoletti’s sculptures are also included in the collections of The Mint Museum; The Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art; The Cummer Museum of Art; The Philips Lighting Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; The Florida National Guard; Bell South; Bank of America; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Denison University; Urbino Resort, Italy, and numerous other private collections.
During the last several years, Enzo has directed his energies primarily to stone carving which has taken him to Portugal, England and Italy where he maintains a sculpture studio.
FINDING INSPIRATION FROM THE VIVID LIFE AROUND HER
Making artwork has been part of Gayle’s daily life from early childhood. Her first memories are of playing in the great claybanks on the bluffs of the St. Johns river in Northern Florida. Clay became tiny animals and their abode. Her imagination soared. When paint and pencils came her way, her delight and wonder helped her transform the tropical world around her into colorful child’s art too.
Teen years were filled with drawing and painting under the guidance of respected teacher Lenore Byrd. She received her BA in Art from Flagler College in St. Augustine and began her art career, stepping into the ranks of living history craftsmen popular in the nation’s oldest city, first as an apprentice leathercraftsman with Dan Holiday and later as a museum craftsman potter in the living history museum in downtown, then run by the state of Florida. She polished her art skills, developing exhibits for the public as Museum Curator and then it was time for her to open her own art studio open to the public. For almost 30 years, her studio/gallery was a staple of the downtown art scene, visitors becoming beloved friends and her colorful artwork, filled with the mythical and magical wild Florida of her imagination went out with them to their homes around the world.
Today Gayle’s studios for painting, drawing and pottery are at her home in St. Augustine. Nature studies still delight her, finding their way into imagery in her artwork. In recent times she has enjoyed studying with artists including Plein Air painter Paul Ladiner, Roger Bansemer, Botanical Illustration studies at Leu Gardens in Orlando and Atelier style studies with Dr. Kenneth Koster and Maricela Quiros.