The love for the watercolor was a real thunderbolt. Woodns, then and there, he neglected all the techniques used previously, with transport and wealth he devoted himself to this new love. At first experimented using colors timid approach that reflected the colors of the present moment. Demarcating the boundaries of an extremely delicate for him. Time pale colors and muted tones. Since, at the same time that new stimulus and his enthusiasm, his wife was hit by a dark evil from a tribble course, a suffering that he saw her wear in four years, and after two major operations. Operations that went one thousand trains, resulting in considerable discomfort. Situations he faced as the best of men can do. He took care of his wife with absolute dedication, standole close, day after day, with extreme tenderness, almost to the last breath. Only when the companion he had chosen for his life went into a deep coma, he refused to attend that last agony.
It was the night of January 5, 1995, the eve of the Epiphany, when the conditions of his wife turned for the worst. There were all close relatives and some close neighbors. He, who was sitting beside him, when he realized what was actually happening, he stood up, gave her one last kiss and closed the kitchen. From there, the women began to sing litanies and he, in the silence of quell'improvvisato hermitage, he began to draw a rose bud sticking out from a small vessel, on which he painted a butterfly with its wings spread, as if it were in the air and let behind him, a small trail of blood. Then, in the background, with the pen painted a face and you also stationed arcane phrases. When the shouting and the noise of the crying became more subdued, he realized that the moment had come. Marked on the painting that hour, and with both hands, covered his ears, almost, to not want to hear. At that moment, her cheeks began to moisten and then drip, watering the pink paper.
After that tragic event was alone. Both sons had families and were present for what they could, not to leave him alone offered him hospitality, but he refused. At that time, he neglected his life. Became slovenly in dress, the meals were not more regular and also began to swill a bit '. He spent time in alternation: the streets with his easel in the room or races. Many times, at the end of those days, took refuge in a bar, dined and maybe you spent the evening getting late. Was thus in contact with the people of the night. Men and women from many different facial features. For the most deprived persons to whom life, with greed, had taken everything, or avarice had given very little. Alcohol consumption homeless, ex-convicts, women, fragile and failed, foreigners from the knife easy. Happened to him in those environments, to quickly retract some of those faces marked. Then, in his studio, taking inspiration from the sketch, with the oil transformed them: they wore, giving a new and different to those sad characters. Figures thus became a dancer, a Christ or a clown, finding a picture of their redemption.
Were the product of loneliness. In those areas so messy chanced upon the several events, not too pleasant. One in particular, which made him give up and abandon that world. It was an ugly story of jealousy, which would be too long to narrate here: suffice it to say that this episode brought him back on the right path. Panacea for loneliness and harbor of salvation, however, was the earth, the nature of which he, as mentioned earlier, saw and loved like a mother. He returned to cultivating his vegetable garden, ground who looked after for a long time and with passion that was put aside after the death of his wife. Times so to get up early in the morning, devoting the embellishment and the cultivation of that little piece of land. Where, apart from the vine, fruit trees, flowers and vegetables in season, you could see various sculptures made from roots, bushes and antiques properly placed, who gave to the place charm and mystery.
It was near the place that Umberto met Graziella, the woman who later became his muse and his new companion for life. He fell in love again. And also his art noticed. The soft watercolor shades so became veritable feasts of color. Taken at the same time the use of colored pencils, signs of the new summer he was living. As with the other techniques used previously, even with watercolor perfection reached in a few years. Styling that earned him the title of Master, validated by a collective. One of the few shows in which Woodns exhibited his works, held in Como and the eloquent title: "The masters of watercolor ."

Christ  with Child, oil on canvas, 1996

Como, Duomo Square  .

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