Meet Fernando Micheli!

Fernando is a long time resident of Laguna Beach, California and a member of LPAPA Laguna Plein Air Painter’s Association. He was born near Lucca, Italy and immigrated to the United States with family in 1955. After High School in Watsonville, California, he decided to pursue schooling in Italy, residing in Pinerolo (Piedmont), Pietrasanta, Florence and Lucca (Tuscany) for two years. Although speaking fluent Italian, this allowed him the time to travel and attain the proficiency needed to apply to the University of Florence in Art and Architecture. After much thought, he eventually longed to return to San Francisco and family and pursue a design oriented profession.

Fernando is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design in Landscape Architecture. After graduating and following his career path, he began a successful career as a Landscape Architect in Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach, which lasted over 36 years. Desiring a change, he decided to try oil painting in 2013. It was a life changing decision; one that he believes brought him back to this longing to be an artist. What attracts Fernando to painting is the immediacy of Plein Air painting.

“One not only needs to capture the feeling of the subject, but also the essence of light and color as it bounces, reflects and scatters. Painting is truly seeing more intensely than you can possibly hope to see. Painting is a life-long pursuit, one that requires always honing and learning new skills in order to build a vocabulary that just doesn’t reproduce reality, but provides new ways to look at it.”

Fernando has traveled and painted in and around Southern California, and Italy to capture the immediacy and joy of painting.

Fernando Micheli Curriculum Vitae:

EXHIBITIONS:

• Six Inch Square, Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa, California: 12/6/14 – 1/10/15
• A New York Moment, ARTISTA COLLECTIVE Art Show, New York, New York: June 25, 2015
• Sawdust Festival, Laguna Beach, California: 6/26/15 – 8/30/15
• Just Plein Fun Invitational, Debra Huse Gallery, Balboa Island, California: 7/27/15 – 8/1/15
• Van Gogh Inspiration, LPAPA Forest and Ocean Gallery, Laguna Beach, California: 8/22/15 – 9/8/15
• LPAPA After Dark, LPAPA Forest and Ocean Gallery, Laguna Beach, California: 11/14/15 – 11/22/15
• Artista Holiday Show in Colorado, Denver, Colorado: 12/4/2015 – 12/6/2015
• Romance Of The Landscape, LPAPA Forest and Ocean Gallery, Laguna Beach, California: 2/2/15 – 2/29/16
• La Festa Del Autunno, Pelican Hills REsort, Newport Beach, California:10/11/14

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:

• LPAPA, Laguna Plein Air Painter’s Association

AWARDS:

• “Nights Out” – Randy Higbee Gallery Award Winner – 10/2014
• “Cheapie Del Rio” – Just Plein Fun Invitational, Honorary Mention, from Jean Stearn, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum – 8/2015
• “Carving The Light” – Romance Of The Landscape, Honorary Mention, LPAPA Forest and Ocean Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA – 2/2016