Biography

Carlo Forte was born in the Italian city Piacenza.

From a very young age he showed interest and great sensitivity for drawing and painting. In school classes he spent a lot of time drawing pencil portraits of teachers, classmates and everything that his imagination was revealing. The teachers considered him a rebel, but he excelled in drawing and singing competitions. He frequently visited the studio of the painter Gianni Guglielmetti whilst trying to follow family and social traditions and finishes high school.

The need to escape manifested itself in a desire to travel and in 1970 he accepted a job as an Organisational Leader in the Coffee Route Project of Ghimbi Gambela in Ethiopia. This experience determined his first search for new horizons; but Carlo was not yet prepared for a radical change. On the end of the contract, he returned to Italy and worked as Director of the Department of Urban Traffic in the municipality of Piacenza. During this time he finished his studies in Political Science at the University of Pavia and he obtained his doctorate. He then enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Parma, but never lost his attraction to art. In his spare time he actively participated in the theatre group La Canea.
Three years later after an existential crisis, he resigned from his economic administrative career, concluding this stage of his life. This resulted in a trip to the Canary Islands in 1975. The beauty of Tenerife captivated Carlo. His artistic vocation took over any practical thoughts and finally his heart opened completely towards his predestined path. During his first years in Tenerife, he dedicated himself to the drawing and painting of portraits and landscapes in a meticulous figurative style.

Then followed times of spiritual restlessness that took him to South America and India to allow him to feel and transmit what his eyes, heart and soul could see. Upon his return to Tenerife his style of painting had changed. The colours stored during his period of travel and the light from the southern islands of his native Italy and the Canary Islands begun to emerge from his brushes. The “Landscape of the Soul” filled his canvasses with joy and intensity. Carlo defined this style of painting as intuitive, something that arises from a place of silence and meditation from the heart more than the mind.

At the beginning of the 1980s construction work throughout Tenerife and especially on the coast, changed deeply the landscape and the energy that Carlo loved so much. He decided to retreat to the mountains to immerse in peace and silence. He found the ruins of an 18th century building in Arona and dedicated himself to restoring them. This decision coincided with the beginning of an expression of unintentional art which was inspired and sensitive: stone by stone, flower by flower, tree by tree were planted in harmony like a musical composition where the notes flow and create a perfect space for artistic expression. In this period Carlo didn’t stop painting and started courses in painting and meditation. Through his guidance, students came from many corners of the world to learn to connect with their own creativity.

Carlo has exhibited his work in Europe, USA, Latin America and more frequently in different halls in Tenerife.

Today he has a studio/gallery and his permanent exhibition in the southern part of Tenerife, in “Costa de Silencio”.

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