Upcoming Events

So much is happening, so I’ve made a video for you and a list

March Events

SATURDAY: 3/1 - In-Person Event - Medium Readings @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 12:00 - 6:00 pm - Book your reading here

SATURDAY: 3/1 - In-Person Workshop - Conversations with the Universe @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 6:30 - 7:30 pm - $33 per person - Sign up here

MONDAY: 3/3-4/29 In-person Event - Solo Art Exhibit @ Philz Coffee in Encinitas - 1060 S Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas - Click here to shop the show

SATURDAY: 3/8 - In-Person Event - Medium Readings @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 12:00 - 6:00 pm - Book your reading here

SATURDAY: 3/15 - In-Person Event - Medium Readings @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 12:00 - 6:00 pm - Book your reading here

SATURDAY: 3/15 - In-Person Group Angel Reiki - Healing After Loss @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 6:30 - 7:30 pm - Pay what you can - Sign up here

SATURDAY: 3/22 - In-Person Event - Medium Readings @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 12:00 - 6:00 pm - Book your reading here

SATURDAY: 3/29 - In-Person Event - Medium Readings @ RTW Unique Boutique in Poway (San Diego County) - 12:00 - 6:00 pm - Book your reading here

Future Events

2025: Online Course - The Healer's Journey - Are you feeling called to be a light worker or to incorporate your light working abilities into your daily life? Discover your unique path and divine calling. Let me know if you're interested

2026: Retreat in Laguna Beach - Magical and Fabulous - Three days to get in touch with your intuition and your creative self to bring out the most magical and fabulous parts of you. Let me know if you're interested

Backyard Art Show - May 2020

Since many art shows are being canceled due to the COVID 19 crisis, I decided to find another way. I set up my tent in my backyard! After preparing, setting up, filming, taking down, and editing, I did it! Please enjoy.

Getting back to my happy place

In the summer I enjoy painting outdoors, but in the winter I paint from photographs that I’ve taken during my travels. I travel to California often and I started taking pictures of bird of paradise flowers on one of my trips to Los Angeles. The following Spring I started painting from those photographs.

©May2017, Francesca Bandino, Bird of Paradise Blue. Acrylic on Canvas, 10x10x1.5 inches

The Bird of Paradise Flower series was my first body of work based on the study of a single subject matter. Although the first one I painted was very simple, the more paintings I created, the more details I explored. I also found myself experimenting with backgrounds and color choices. In the first part of the series I completed 9 bird of paradise flower paintings. Then I had other ideas percolating in my head and I moved onto other projects.

The following winter I had some issues in my studio including flooding (don’t worry, nothing was ruined). I took this as an opportunity to move into a shared studio space with other artists. I had been working on my own for a long time, so it was nice to be surrounded by creatives. However, the artist side of my brain didn’t seem to agree with the social part of it. 

For the first month I found myself making less than interesting work. I experimented with a few subject matters, but everything seemed completely out of my style. Even the flower paintings I made were not up to par with my other flower paintings. I was creatively lost. I was having a hard time connecting to my work in this new space.

A Bright Soul in progress on my easel

In my despair I printed out the pictures I had taken of the bird of paradise flowers in Los Angeles. I was hesitant to start. What if I had forgotten how to paint these majestic flowers? What if they didn’t look like the ones I had previously made?

However, I did what I usually do. I pushed my fears aside for the love of painting. I slowly started to feel myself sink into my happy place. My art companions were amazed at what I was creating. This was working. I wasn’t trying to create something unique or meaningful. I was simply creating a subject that speaks to me with colors that I love. I had shut out everything else around me and created something beautiful. The painting was A Bright Soul. I was creating something familiar but in a new way. It gave me the momentum to make paintings that I loved again.

“Radiant Plenitude” is my solo exhibition of bright and bold paintings which was on display at the Ocean City Arts Center in March 2019. Among the paintings in the collection is the Bird of Paradise Flower series. Each piece and each body of work carries its own significance. When I look at the Bird of Paradise Flower paintings I’m reminded of courage, comfort and the happiness they bring. 

From left to right: Blue Flight, Orange Rose, Bird of Paradise Blue, Voluptuous Blues, Dual Complexity

Colorful Clouds

After I’ve completed a series or finished a project, I take time to begin researching and experimenting with new subjects, styles, and color palettes. If I’m lucky I happen upon something right away and am able to develop my next series of paintings. Other times, I pick up from a one-off creation that I completed in the middle of a different series and didn’t continue. I let that painting speak to me and tell me a story. Then I let that story guide me through a new body of work. 

The first draft of “Remnants” that I created.

I wasn’t as lucky when I started Remnants. I had just completed a series and I was looking for where to go next. While in my studio looking for pictures that I could take inspiration from, I settled on one I had taken while hiking in Washington State. The mist over the mountains felt so relaxing that I thought it would be a great way to start a new project. After putting down a bit of grey and white clouds on a blue background, I wasn’t convinced that this was the direction I wanted to go. An artist friend suggested that I needed to add more layers. Even though I knew she was right, I also knew that it would no longer look like mist. I wasn’t ready to continue. I was afraid to continue. So I left it alone and moved onto another series. I wouldn’t revisit it again for a long time. 

©August 2018, Francesca Bandino, Sun in the Storm. Acrylic on Canvas, 40x40x1.5 inches, $1,060.00

In July 2018 I traveled to Virginia. The environment was very different from what I was accustomed to. In my many attempts to search for new subjects to paint, I settled on something magical - the clouds. Clouds in Virginia were large and full, they felt so close I thought I could touch them, and they had beautiful rays of color shining through. Before approaching my large 40x40 inch canvas, I did two small studies on 4x4 inch canvases. I didn’t want a repeat of my Remnants failure. To my surprise, I was happy with what I created and I had the confidence to tackle the large painting. I waved my brush across the canvas, creating colorful, rolling clouds. I could feel that Sun in the Storm would be the start of a new series. 

©August 2018, Francesca Bandino, Wind and Clouds. Acrylic on Canvas, 30x30x1.5 inches, $805.00

I took advantage of my momentum to create my next cloud painting on a 30x30 inch canvas. Clouds move quickly, so I had to start my painting from yet another picture. This one was from a road trip between New Jersey and Virginia. Each cloud became heavenly as I painted them full and weightless. An image came to me and so I added strong blue brush strokes around the clouds creating a wind-like atmosphere. Wind and Clouds became the next painting in my Clouds and Landscapes series. 

©September 2018, Francesca Bandino, Remnants. Acrylic on Canvas, 12x16 inches, $380.00

After that I was finally ready to approach Remnants once again. I needed to be true to my style of painting and the grey mist was too dull. Instead, I added layers upon colorful layers, creating fluffy orange and peach-colored clouds, each fitting like a puzzle piece into the next.

I chose to hang these paintings at the Hanover Township Town Hall for my winter 2019 solo exhibition, “Nature Reimagined: A solo exhibition of select paintings by Francesca Bandino.” Alongside them you’ll also find select paintings from Clouds and Landscapes, Apples and Temptation, and Flowers in the Garden. For each of these paintings I spotted a colorful reflection, a hidden light, or a generally muted color and intensified it to match the feelings of the day. I consider it a brighter way to view the world. After all, colors can be found in the most unlikely of places if we’re willing to see them. 

Exhibition at the Hanover Township Town Hall
From left to right: Head in the Clouds, Remnants, Mystification, Sun in the Storm, Hydrangeas in the Garden