The materials Chiara Salvadori chooses are not incidental — they are the investigation itself. Her relationship with them is deeply sensory, fed by all the senses, alive in every decision she makes. Mixing, layering, contaminating: this is where her painting begins.

She thinks of it almost like conception. Just as two beings come together to create a new life that will then open itself to the world, her work is the fertile union of matter and mystery.

It starts with the support — paper, wood, linen, jute, hemp, all in warm tones — each one chosen for how it will make color vibrate.

Then comes the priming: rabbit skin glue, chalk, paper. Ancient preparations that welcome the pigments and give them a home. A root, before there can be a flower.

From there, she draws on the study of old masters to develop her own stable, functional recipes — organic and inorganic pigments bound in fat temperas made with milk, honey, egg, natural resins. Generous things, born from nature, that become art and quietly reshape the painting process from within.

This allows organic matter to blend and flow with water as the gesture takes shape. It is the vibration of color — unlocked by these age-old techniques and guided by the artist’s hand — that produces the work, and keeps it in constant metamorphosis.