About
FRANCESCA SCIANDRA
ARTIST
I’m a visual artist with a focus on painting and experiential art. Painting and drawing are two of my passions. I make art to better understand and connect with the world around me. I paint and draw to explore my imagination and represent what I see and feel. I am inspired by nature and emotion.
EXPRESSION
I’ve been fascinated with art and creativity since I took my first drawing class as a teenager. Since then, I’ve always enjoyed making things — no matter the medium.
“Work is self-expression. We must not think of self-expression as something we may do or something we may not do. Self-expression is inevitable. In your work, in the way you do your work and in the results of your work, your self is expressed.”
—Agnes Martin
RADIANCE
Making art and connecting with my inner radiance are my life-long goals. In my coaching and facilitation, I strive to create sparks of radiance in others.
GROWTH
I grew up in the United States in a sleepy town in Southern New Hampshire, followed by the suburbs of Western New York. I always loved arts and crafts as a child, and I fell in love with painting and drawing in high school. When I was a teenager, I knew that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.
I became a woman in New York City, first living in the vibrance of the East Village, followed by the calm of Park Slope, Brooklyn. After living in NYC, I left to spend a summer studying art history and glass sculpture in Barcelona. Little did I know when I made that trip, it would be the beginning of a new and magical chapter in my life. During this period, I lived in Italy and Portugal before coming to London.
As I’ve moved around, each place has taught me new lessons—from finding pleasure in Rome, to finding a true sense of happiness in the countryside of Umbria.
WILDERNESS
One of my favourite childhood memories is of the few weeks I spent at summer camp. The camp counsellors were so kind and happy. Laughing and flirting amongst each other with ease, they would lead us in making crafts from things we’d gather from the woods.
Each morning at the end of breakfast, Vi the Bird Lady would bring her tape recorder into the dining hall and play a bird call for us. She’d read a brief description of the bird, then tell us of its markings and shape. We’d listen as she played the call again, then we’d try to guess the bird. I don’t remember if there was a prize. I was young enough to wonder if she lived at the camp year-round, making a permanent home in her little wooden cottage. I hoped that being an adult would feel like it did those weeks at summer camp, and I was curious if I could grow up to be a bird lady.
Many decades later, after I left New York City, I lived for eight months in the countryside of Umbria, Italy on a work exchange at an arts organisation. We were based at an agriturismo, a farmhouse settled at the top of a large olive grove. It was cold in the wintertime, but there were days when the sun would still feel warm and bright. I found a new sense of contentment carrying firewood up to the main house, watching my long shadow cross the brick walls of the building.
POWER
My power manifests through activating my self-expression and through helping others activate theirs. I find my power in my creative practice. I write and draw every day, even when it challenges me.
FLOW
That magic feeling when everything drops away, yet everything is present. I love the sense of freedom that comes from connecting fully to a moment. It can’t be forced, but it can be nurtured.
TEACHING & MENTORING
I am an experienced educator and facilitator in the arts. I’ve been working with children, teenagers, and adults since I was a teenager.
My first creative facilitation experience was in the summer of 1994. I volunteered as a creative workshop facilitator at Artpark, a centre for visual and performing arts in Lewiston, New York, USA. I worked with children, drawing and painting together.
While studying architecture at university in New York City in the late 1990s, I taught drawing to high schoolers in The Cooper Union Saturday Program. Instruction included life drawing, still life, and architectural drawing skills and techniques.
Now, I create and facilitate individual and group coaching programs for creative empowerment and personal development. I create courses and run in-person workshops for groups. Workshops include mindfulness & drawing and working through creative recovery.
THERAPY & COACHING
I am a qualified therapist and coach. I offer integrative therapy, hypnotherapy and coaching for people seeking transformative healing and change. I support and guide my clients in exploring their inner world of beliefs, assumptions, and expectations so they may create greater possibilities for themselves. Learn more →