‘This has happened by fate’
EUROPE, Australia, the Vatican, and . . . Arrowtown?
The township is the latest place to host an exhibition by visiting artists Luigi and Kate Agnelli, who have taken up residence at Lakes District Museum for the summer.
Mrs Agnelli said their intricate, collaborative drawings always told a story.
The pair’s own background is just as fascinating.
Mrs Agnelli, of England, was working as an archaeologist, while Luigi, a trained lawyer from Italy, was working as a skipper.
‘‘About 10 years ago I met Luigi in Arezzo, which is a town in Tuscany, and he was drawing, and one day I said ‘I’ll have a go at this’, and started drawing on the side of his drawing, and it all really started from there,’’ she said.
‘‘We started really slowly. At that time we had other jobs but we started to show people our work and they liked what we were doing, and we started thinking ‘why not, why not do this as our work?’.’’
She called their meeting a work of fate.
‘‘We finally found each other, which is a complete fluke. This whole thing has happened by fate; it brings two people together, like a miracle, finding they can both do the same thing.
‘‘People love the stories. We put a lot of emotion; we put everything into it and I think that shows.’’
They use large pieces of paper to allow them to draw side by side, and each piece takes about two months to create.
Their exhibition in Arrowtown is called ‘‘The Story of Life’’.
Their work has been exhibited throughout Europe and in Australia, while some of their drawings are being presented to the Pope ahead of an exhibition at the Vatican in Rome next year.