Welcome to FRESIA.

We teach, exhibit, and share with others the activity of art. Our work is based upon a simple idea – articulated nicely by Robert Henri – which is this: art is the province of every human being. This thought is central to all our projects. Each of us has the capacity to create, to feel profoundly, and to express who we are.

We focus on painting and we do this through our art school, videos, exhibitions, and writing. We live and work on Lake Como, Italy. Our painting workshops take place in Lenno while our gallery is located in Menaggio. Both are in the central area of the lake. Our painting workshops have been on-going since 2004 and we have drawn students from around the world – 32 countries, from every continent except Antartica, to be precise.

Our videos, blog and books are available on-line.

In 2011, FRESIA opened an art gallery to showcase the work of American artist Jerry Fresia. The gallery is located in Menaggio, the largest town in the central area of Italy’s magnificent Lake Como. Jerry studied primarily with William Schultz whose method of instruction can be traced back, from student to teacher, directly to the French Impressionists. He also studied with Wolf Kahn. Jerry works only from nature and his paintings of Lake Como and the surrounding villages reflect his love of color and loose expressive brushwork. Besides landscapes, Jerry also paints still lifes and figures.

Lake Como is beautiful to be sure, but for a painter it is simply a point of departure. As the French Impressionists themselves pointed out, the point of painting is not to make a picture but to respond emotionally to what one sees and then to render one’s emotion on canvas. This is the reason why Rachele Zagnoli Guicciardi, Independent Consultant for Christie’s Auction House, notes that after living on Lake Como for her entire life she experiences “entirely new emotions” when she looks at Jerry’s paintings of Lake Como (see homepage). His paintings of Lake Como are not pictures of Lake Como but the rendering of his feelings through line, tone, and color. It is the depth of the feelings of the artist that engages the viewer and which provide lasting pleasure.

“A good painting does not depend on its subject for its beauty. It refers to nothing beyond itself. It is alive and a lifetime of looking will not be enough to see or feel the depth of life the artist has injected.”