Setting a challeng for myself.

I've been painting Italy lately and enjoying the process and the memories that it has brought back to me. I so would love to go back again to Tuscany, but alas I think it's to late for me to travel so far from home and the flight just might be too much, not in cost but in energy.

I've painted the Villa Aglitoni twice and haven't been completely satisfied with my efforts. The first was a small watercolor and the second was an acrylic, which I posted earlier.

This time I decided to challenge myself and do it in watercolors on a 22x 30" watercolor sheet, using 300# Arches HP paper. I've never worked this large so it was a personal challenge for me.

Before I could even begin I had to figure out what to mount the paper on to do the painting. I had just cleaned out my paper storage and came across two large pieces of corrugated cardboard, size 24 x 34 which had been in my latest order for watercolor paper. Perfect...I had a large plastic bag that I opened up and wrapped the cardboard in. There you go, a perfect support for my paper.

Because the 300# HP paper absorbs the water like a sponge and it wont run down like it would on 140# I decided to do it upright, like an oil painting, on my easel, so I had a better perspective of it as I worked. Now I was getting excited to start.

After doing a very light sketch of the building and being satisfied with it, I started adding color. I got lost in it and 4 hrs. later had to step back and take a look at what I'd done.

Here is the result of 4 hrs. work. I'll call it Stage 1 or a WIP.

A small Plein Aire painting.

Summer is almost gone and fall is in the air. When this happens the Hydrangeas start changing their colors.

Not many more days left to paint out doors and I have to get out and do more of this. I enjoy being outside painting, hearing the birds singing, flies and bees buzzing.

Remberance of Italy 1999

I've been doing some painting these last couple weeks. Going back in time to 1999 the first time I went to Italy.

I joined a group of women painters in a little country town in Tuscany, about 45 miles from Florence. We stayed in a beautiful villa that sat on top a hill overlooking a valley filled with grapes and olive trees and farm houses. We could see two other hill towns from where were on Saturday evenings they had fiestas with fireworks, first the one to our left, then the next Saturday, the one on our Right. Every evening as we had our dinner, cooked by Elizabetha our cook, we watched the sun set and drank their wonderful Italian wine.

What a wonderful two weeks I had. From the moment I got there I felt at home, like I had seen these vistas before, it felt like coming home again.

I would get up very early, the rooster at an adjoining villa would wake me. I loved starting my day this way. I would make a strong cup of coffee in a little espresso pot and go outside to greet the day. It was always fresh and cool in the mornings, but later in the day it would get very warm. I was always the first one up and loved being alone at that time.

Later after everyone was up and we had our breakfast of Nutella and Italian bread, with coffee or tea, we would all gather our supplies together and make sure we had our hats and off we went to find the perfect spot to paint. The first morning we mostly explored our surroundings and walked the road (dirt) down the hill to see what we might have missed on the way up in the car. I remembered a little church that we passed and decided to
paint there. It was a beautiful place and I did a couple of nice watercolor
sketches, which I have since given away.
It would get very hot around noon and we would all make our way back up the hill to the villa where Elizabetha was busy preparing our lunch. We would freshen up, get the sweat out of our eyes and gather under the shelter in the yard. We share our mornings work and talked of our experience and then Elizabetha would bring out large platter of pasta, salad, fresh Italian bread, fruit and wine. After lunch it was time for a nap...to hot to go out and paint... then about 4PM we would go out
again to paint. Dinner was around 7:30 or 8:00. It was truly La Dolce Vita.

The first below is Villa Parcheggio, the neighboring villa to Aglitoni where we stayed. The second is Aglitoni.

Tuscan Villa

This painting has been sold.

A few from Italy 1999

Here are two sketches that I did in Italy, 1999 and the resulting paintings

just done this week.

August is good

This is turning out to be a very good month. A new baby in the family, grandson coming home from Afganistan and niece has just bought a new

home. All good things.

I've managed to get some time in my studio and did a couple of paintings that

I will post on here later, but first wanted to post one I did last month.

Another sunflower...can't seem to get enough of them. I see them every morning when we take Leo for his walk so I guess that's why I need to paint them.