Lea Ricci was born in Cesena (FC) Italy. Born from an early age for drawing and painting, Ricci collects its first successes in the scholastic field. Elected "painter of the class" gives free rein, through the drawings, to her fervid imagination and her inspiration. Since then these signs are very personal and with characteristics that distinguish her from all the other students. Subsequently, Lea Ricci decides to take private lessons with an elderly teacher, Raffaele Zappador, of Venetian origin, who initiates her to the first secrets of the classical figurative. With him, Ricci collaborates with some works of a sacred and profane character, substituting altogether, in the last times, the unfortunately shaky hand of the master. This first figurative period lasts until 1968 and is fertile of a landscape and portrait production that, even if they will be abandoned by the artist, have the merit of maturing a personal taste of color that will remain an integral part of his future work. Despite numerous acknowledgments and encouragement to continue on this path, the artist, however, warns that with the figurative means he cannot really express what he feels in his soul. The desire for "more" that does not make her never pay for the results achieved, pushes her to an intense search for the most suitable means of expression for the interview she wants to establish through her art. It passes, thus, through a phase of relief painting and studies the performance of the various compositions both in their resistance and in the color and effects produced. Her innate qualities and the success she gets, confirmed also by numerous awards received, push her to a subsequent period. He sees a complete break with the previous art and a strong projection towards what the artist himself calls "electronic style". Ricci believes in the power of science and demonstrates this through a deep and profound interest in cybernetics and chemistry. The space race between the two powers of the time (USSR and USA) and in particular the world event of the first man who managed to reach and take some steps on the lunar planet, was very exciting for her, especially when Neil Armstrong gave humanity this quote: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. " This is a small step for a man, a giant leap for humanity. "July 21, 1969) It was also decisive for her that from the basic space center and through electronic equipment on board the spacecraft, the trajectory and images were transmitted on the monitors beyond Earth's gravity.All this led Lea to participate in many scientific cultural meetings, so as to be inspired, creating a specific personal pictorial style:

                                                                           ELECTRONIC STYLE

                                                         (Symbols purely technical - with oil colors).

The works born from this experience bring very significant titles. "From Earth's Gravity to Space", "Short Circuit", "High Voltage" etc. Here the muted colors, which do not create strong contrasts or ruptures, are like a message of peace, a peace achieved through the good use of science; the recurrence of certain signs and figures are part of a difficult but also wise discourse. Imprisoned in a rigor of natural science, cosmographic, but only apparently arid, the result of a great availability of formal means and a good knowledge of the use of the sign. Partially satisfied with her creativity, Ricci went to the U.S.A. in 1973. Bringing with her ten of her works, all vidimate by the Superintendence of the Fine Arts of Turin for export. A Buffalo U.S.A. is invited by a well-known gallery "The Sisti Gallery", where she presents her paintings and then in Canada Toronto, enjoying a good success. In Canada, during her free time she dedicated herself to collaborating with a travel agency, particularly for students and professionals, proposing with careful research, trips through our beautiful Italy. In that context, she had the opportunity to meet important people. In Ontario, she visits the I.B.M complex and scientific centers, remaining fascinated by the latest experiments with laser beams. Lea Ricci lives her time intensely, her sensibility captures this continuous becoming of emotions in a whirlwind of sensations, which she transfers to the canvas in metaphysical compositions that give the idea of her inner restlessness and which push her to a continuous study and deepening. Means of expression, thus revealing the depth from which crystallized concepts are born in her pictorial works. The artist, always looking for new experiences, undertakes numerous trips in: France, Spain, Slovenia, Malta, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malta, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, England, etc.In a period of reflection, she devotes herself to drawing ties, tablecloths, women's clothes and to the restoration, waiting to elaborate another artistic period. Finally, it presents itself with the style:

                                                                  "ELECTRONIC ROMANTICISM"
                                                                     STYLE DESIGNED BY ME

Her description of this other new style: << ... when I imagine painting a subject, I like to imagine wrapping myself in colors and light. In this new style that I conceived, the subject is born as if it was captured by a subtle energy and reproduced on perforated cards and immediately inserted into an electronic computer (mainframe: perforated band reader between the years 1960/75). The punched cards thus elaborated, were transmitted subsequently to the printer that transformed them into an image, surrounding the signs in small dashes. My memory goes to certain printouts where drawings appeared, but all formed by dashes, while the beams of light depicted on my paintings, in my imagination, symbolize the invisible laser beams. In my paintings, I introduce the subject and exalt it. The content and titles of these new paintings are, less technical and more "ROMANTIC", for example: "Spring message under the wisteria; tribute to ... the first apple; History of Claudio Monteverdi (famous musician); in the infinite molecular space; fertility in the sun; the power of life; moment before the big-bang; tribute to Picasso; the Mole Antonelliana of Turin and the cinema around the world museum; flowers from England; Egyptian cross and tarot magic; fountain among the reeds; trip to Sicily, Venice, (Italy). Furthermore Moscow - Russia; Travel to Canada; Africa, Travel to Turkey, Turin; snowy sunset; ancient Egypt, the two friends and many others "... Of this style, you can count many paintings executed by me. The colors, metaphorically, seem to dress the work in harmony, while the hatching highlights it, framing its images and colors in their clarity. In these my paintings poetry advances. (Yes, indeed, because I also like to write poetry and books for teenagers.) >>   

MIXED TECHNIQUE

In 2011 Lea Ricci presents another PERSONAL EXHIBITION AT THE PROMOTER OF THE BEAUTIFUL ARTS OF TURIN with paintings done in "MIXED TECHNIQUE" with oil colors, amalgamated with glues, golden powders, flexible material and collage: The titles are as follows: "Spirals , Dragon, Blue flowers among golden spikes, etc.   

INFORMAL MATERIAL

Lea Ricci makes canvases using the spatula Her works vary between dark shades, nuances or scraping the canvas in order to make it clearer, to look for the right shade of the mineral that he finds in nature and which unites on the canvas. She points out that she would never have thought of using a single color to make her works of art; she who loves color ... But the informal is a style that was born after the Second World War and so the colors were improvised material disparate. In this period, her paintings are decisive, because they will soon bring her back to use color palettes again: a new style opens up for her: "Abstract" 

                                                                                 ABSTRACT STYLE

A sarabande of colors impetuously envelops the thoughts of Lea Ricci and, between "2014-15", is presented in a PERSONAL EXHIBITION OF PAINTING at the "Promoter of the Fine Arts of Turin with other paintings, made in abstract style, rich in colors well combined. The artist has fun among her boyish emotions; plays with the colors transmitting curiosity among the public. Reflected ... all this contributed a trip to Greece: inside the Parthenon, among the columns, imagining them still golden, she sensed a group of "Wise Men" in iridescent white tunics, intent on discussing the first elements of nature. Lea Ricci with this style describes the colors that hovered between dream and reality.  

Title of the exhibition inspired by Greek philosophy: "The hidden plots of nature: 
Air (Era) - water (Poseidon) - earth (Gea) - fire (Hephaestus).

These elements are represented symbolically with four circles, visible on each painting, connected by a trail of an arrow; the subjects that run in the imaginary vortex of the times between energy and colors. With these elements, she interprets a game between an ancient feeling up to gradually get, by experience, to today's reality and smiling reveals: << Now it is time to express myself with a joyous emotional charge where the nuances may sometimes appear veiled, other instinctive and irruptive, others still generating severe and obscure lines that do not shrill as a whole. Color is life! >>