Wine is not just for drinking. At least it’s not for Elisabetta Rogai, an artist who uses wine to paint.
Rogai has abandoned tempera and watercolors in favor of red and white wine without any other chemicals to paint portraits of women.
She tells that the idea came to her in 2010, after she stained a tablecloth with wine: "I saw the stain on the tablecloth and thought to myself, that will never go away; I was impressed, so I began to experiment with ways to condense the wine."
With the help of the University of Florence, the techniques were gradually refined, while the artistic touch is left to Rogai, who keeps studying what wines better lend themselves to the different types of shades she wants to attain. This is especially important because the paintings age, just like wine, and over time, they change color depending on the variety it was used: “Those with a basis of Sangiovese become an aubergine color, those from the South tend to become amber and clay."
Watch Elisabetta Rogai as she paints at Palazzo Pitti in Florence:
