Painting Extempore - "Giacomo Lisia" Prize

A village that becomes a canvas

There is a day in August when Paliano changes its skin. White canvases appear at street corners, easels open up in front of the walls, under the Colonna Castle, and along the alleys that descend toward the countryside of the Valle del Sacco. The artists arrive early, when the light is still low and the stones have a different color, and they stay until evening to paint from life. This is the Painting Extempore - "Giacomo Lisia" Prize, one of the longest-running and most recognizable cultural events in the summer calendar of the Municipality of Paliano, in the heart of the Ciociaria region, in the province of Frosinone and the Lazio region.

The memory of Giacomo Lisia

The prize bears the name of Giacomo Lisia (1938-2001), a painter from Paliano who, over a career spanning more than forty years, exhibited in Italy and abroad, receiving numerous awards. Upon his passing in August 2001, the Municipality of Paliano wanted to remember him not with a plaque but with a living gesture: a day of outdoor painting, open to anyone who wanted to engage with the landscape he had painted his entire life. The first edition was born this way, with the collaboration of the local youth association "Le Mole". Since then, the event has never stopped and has grown to become a reference point for painters in Central Italy.

How an extempore works

The formula is the classic one for extempore painting competitions, and it is what makes the event so unique to follow even for those who do not paint. No pre-made works are brought: everything is created and finished within the same day.

• Registration and stamping: in the morning, artists register at the collection point set up in the center, where the supports are stamped on the back by the organization and receive an identification number.
• Painting from life: participants disperse through the village and paint on-site, free to choose their own view. Any technique is allowed.
• Submission and jury: in the afternoon, the works are submitted and evaluated by a committee.
• Exhibition and awards ceremony: the paintings created during the day are exhibited to the public, and the awards ceremony closes the event in the evening.

An audience watching paintings come to life

The charm of the extempore lies precisely in this: for an entire day, residents and visitors can walk through the historic center and see dozens of works take shape before their eyes, stop to talk to the painters, and compare very different interpretations of the same wall or panorama. Paliano, perched on a hill between the Prenestini Mountains and the Sacco Valley, offers abundant material: the sixteenth-century walls, the Colonna Castle, the stairways, the rooftops, and the views that reach far on clear days.

Curatorship and organization

The event takes place under the patronage of the Municipality of Paliano and is curated by the Terre Rare Cultural Association, which has managed the organization of the editions in recent years, proposing a guiding theme each time - from "Paliano, glimpses and emotions" to "Paliano in color" - inviting artists to interpret the village with a personal gaze.

In the heart of the Paliano summer

The extempore is part of the Estate Palianese (Paliano Summer) calendar, the festival that brings concerts, theatrical performances, and Ferragosto celebrations with the historical pageant and the Giostra del Turco (Joust of the Turk) to the city between June and August. Those planning a visit during the days of the prize will find a particularly lively town, with events following one another almost every evening.

Why it is worth the trip

It is not a huge festival: it is an intimate, provincial day in the best sense of the term, where art returns to being a craft practiced in the square rather than an object locked in a gallery. For those who love landscape painting, for those looking for another reason to discover a village in Lazio less beaten by tourist circuits, and for families who want to show their children how a painting is really born, the Painting Extempore - "Giacomo Lisia" Prize is a simple and sincere occasion.