Daniela Pronestì - Art Critic

The bond with the native place is as strong and indissoluble as that which holds a child united to the mother's womb. It is the color of the sky, the acrid smell of the earth, the intense blue of the sea, which our eyes see for the first time when they open to life, that remain indelibly engraved in the depths of the soul. Marilena Badaracchi, born in Elba, bears the clear image of this fertile homeland, so generous in beauty, however hostile its wild nature is sometimes. For an artist, being born in such a place is equivalent to real luck: by carefully observing Badaracchi's paintings it is easy to understand how the first origin of the magnetism of colors that captures and intoxicates the senses of the viewer, is to be found precisely in the strength that this land has instilled in her since birth. Knowing how to paint landscapes is an art, but instilling them with a soul is much more. This skilled painter knows how to do both, thus demonstrating that she possesses both artistic talent and pure poetic instinct. I could lose myself for hours observing her marine glimpses, until I get the impression of listening to the sound of the sea; I could pretend to walk in her green and luxuriant landscapes of her, until I catch a glimpse of her, while still a child, she takes her first uncertain steps in the nature that surrounds her; and again, seek shelter from her first darkening of her autumn skies, refreshing myself in the warm sun of her spring. And all this happens because what she portrays are not fragments of the landscape, but tiles that together make up the colorful mosaic of the soul. This artist knows how to give joy to the one who looks, just as she knows how to communicate a subtle melancholy or awaken a hidden spiritual need; and she manages to achieve all this with the mastery of color and with combinations of tones that are never banal, but always intense and capable of narrative strength.

Mariella Sadorin - Painter
Discovering the secrets of ordinary things and seeing the world in an uncommon and banal context is the aim of making art and this is evident in the works of Marilena Badaracchi. Chromatic freshness is the feature that strikes you immediately when you look at her paintings. The immediacy with which he represents his landscapes makes them alive and present, so that we seem to smell the intense scent of the wild plants that decorate the landscape of the island of Elba, the homeland in which the artist, who manages to capture and convey the atmosphere, colors and poetry of this splendid island with genuine pictorial skill.

Paola Perez de Vera - Painter
Marilena's painting contains the poetry of an Elban heart; with intense and full-bodied brushstrokes she gives life to landscapes full of the colors of our island ... It is not easy to reproduce landscapes on canvas by interpreting them: her paintings are not postcards, but speak to the heart of the beholder. In the blue of the sea Marilena puts all the love that a native of Elba has in her, more or less latent ... and so it is for each of her brushstrokes of green, now as dark as the foliage of our pines, now as emerald as green in Spring .. The sky, now blue, now cobalt blue or light blue, is always a sky that gives the sensation of the immense: it is our sky! But the thing that most attracts me about her painting is the positivity: looking at her paintings, her heart widens, it clears up ..... and for me, this is essential.

Rodolfo Battini - Master of Art
I like everything you have presented as images and what you have written about your person, personality, sensations, emotions, love for your loved ones and for the island, an inexhaustible source of your pictorial research, but also a hidden place in the most recondite of your soul. You have been able to give life to stones, meadows, trees and all the shades of the sky; the part that you consider abstract is undoubtedly that reality which, as seen through a microscope, or a lens, has immersed you in a small part of the universe. It is not abstract art, but a truth much closer to what you feel, to what excites you most when a light breeze, or a hot and suffocating ray of sunshine, touches you materially, but above all spiritually. Nature manages to give you the possibility to personify those twisted lines and shades of colors, just as if a humanity of elves and spirits of the woods communicated to your hand and brush, words and a continuous shouting, a gossipy but benevolent chatter.
Brava ..... but I have known it for some time.

Leo Forte - painter - former art teacher at Luiss Florence
Sometimes looking, observing and admiring the paintings of a painter without knowing him personally facilitates the judgment. It certainly frees the observer from prejudices or preconceptions, easy enthusiasms. Then you see the paintings of an already known painter and the situation is totally reversed. This is because we became friends during a journey, living together emotions and life experiences with unique and spectacular views and landscapes. I shared this experience with Marilena Badaracchi and her husband during a trip to the beautiful lands, beaches and seas of the Caribbean. So there, in those magical places, I was able to observe her enthusiasm, her lively and smiling impressions and especially the splendid expressions in her eyes. It was right there, in those places, that I understood Marilena's great love for the sea. Then, seeing her paintings, I glimpsed a complete story; the talent that she manages to unleash on the canvas is the sum of all her personal experiences seen, lived and loved.
Marilena's paintings are interpretations of a love, not only for the subject, but above all for the material. Her colors are full, alive and express visions enjoyed but above all interpreted. I particularly love when she gives free rein to her imagination as in her paintings with purple flowers on the beach, her brooms and Mediterranean blooms where expressiveness is full and emancipated. In those paintings (just to name a few) she does not fear the subject but dominates it, and her emotional outburst demonstrates courage and the responsibility of free interpretation. Other times she calms down and relaxes allowing the sea to demonstrate all the mystery of her as if she didn't want to disturb him, upset him. Her sea, that of the Island of Elba, is respect, peace, serenity and sentiment. She changes her way of using matter and means, emotion and interpretation are different. But undoubtedly in every painting of her there is that love shared, demonstrated and expressed during that lucky journey where I met a special person and painter.