Prismatic Palette

SOLD!

2011-11-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

"Green Rain, Lake Erie"

8" x 10"

Oil on RayMar Linen Panel

Copywrite 2010 Debra Joyce Dawson

I was pleased to hear that I sold this painting recently
at the Eisele Gallery in Cincinnati!

The link is to my page on their site if you want to see what other works are exhibited there at this time.

I painted this during last year's OPAS Plein Air Competition,

but I didn't enter it.

All the world's a stage!

2011-10-23T21:31:00.000-05:00

Three views of the stage at the Festival Theatre.

At the top, the stage for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
The play started with a rowboat (on wheels) moving through the fog delivering Viola from a violent storm at sea to the fantasical land of Illyria. Lots of props came and went, and great use of the trap door in this production always makes for theatrical magic!

Ah, the set for Moliere's The Misenthrope.

Except for a few upholstered stools, not much changed on stage in terms of props and scenery. The costumes were magnificent, as was the acting, and the translation from the original French into English verse was superb! If only we all had the ability to throw insults with such wit and rhyme.

Widely hailed as Moliere's masterpiece, the play opened in Paris in 1666, with the author playing the lead role of Alceste. His wife played Celimene, the female lead.

And finally, the set for Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.

The tree sat on a rotating piece of the stage. Other props came and went, usually as actors came and went, but the tree was onstage for throughout most of the play. Near the beginning, a live hawk swooped down and across the audience to sit on Merlin's hand who stood at the middle of the stage. The audience loved it!

In 1967, my parents took myself and my best friend to see Camelot, the movie, starring Richard Harris as King Arthur. In the mid-80's, I had the pleasure to see the play, starring Harris, live in Washington D.C. I sat in the front row, Harris appeared out of a tent, in tights, walked to the front of the stage and sat on the edge, right in front of me. A strong memory!

Yesterday, we returned to Columbus after 7 hours in the car. We drove straight to the Drexel Theatre to see The First Grader. A must see movie, based on a true story of a man in Kenya who goes to school at the age of 84. He died in 2009 at the age of 89.

Today, the gym crept back into our lives, and errands, before attending the final performance of Follies at The Garden Theatre in the Short North of Columbus. What a magnificent job the actors did! And a super ending to Martin's vacation.

Balzac's Paintings

2011-10-21T16:02:00.000-05:00

Many hours have been spend in this coffee shop.
Martin works on his crosswords, and I work on my sketchbook,
and finally on this trip, I have completed two small oil paintings.

My 8" x 6" oil from Wednesday.
I worked on it a little more today, and and it's not finished,
but I figured I'd post it.

Me yesterday, trying to speed up the drying time of my watercolor.

I loved the look of the gals servicing coffee in Balzac's. They dress in black, and make great shapes. I got out the watercolors and just painted their shapes in my sketchbook, in preparation for going back today to paint them from an angle looking down the length of the coffee bar.

I was lucky that the same two girls were there today and wearing the same outfits!

I did another watercolor painting today before starting the oil below. I wish I lived closer to this Coffee Shop, not only for the great coffee, but for the wonderful opportunities to paint these scenes.

Another 8" x 6" oil.
I will post the watercolor sketch tomorrow.

A Painting Day

2011-10-20T19:57:00.000-05:00

Wednesday morning in the Shakespeare Gardens.
It was cold, very windy, and rainy.

Yesterday after breakfast, we hit the road with my backpack, pochade box and some small panels. We weren't going to see any plays on that day, so there was all day to paint. The weather was blustery and cold; and, who knew when the predicted rain would start?

I had on a couple of shirts, and a warm headband, but the wind went right through my shirts, and the top of my head felt cool. I donned a winter hat and a rain slicker that I'd bought in the Peak District of England some 10 years before. The slicker doesn't breath, making it great protection from the wind, but it is waterproof for only about 15 minutes if it's raining hard. Luckily, I found a glove in each pocket.

Even with gloves, my fingers were numbed by the cold. I took off a glove
in an attempt to try and feel the palette knife I was holding.

Not long after I got set up, we felt the first rain drop. It didn't rain hard, but it did build up to a steady slow misty drizzle. Between the cold, the wind and the soft rain it was getting hard to paint, so I packed it all away saying I'd clean up the edges when I could feel my fingers again.

We went for a hot drink which turned into lunch.
For me a hot bowl of lentil vegetable soup
at the York Street Cafe.

I made a quick sketch of my dessert,

a butter tart in the shape of a swan. Yummy stuff.

Next, back to Balzac's Coffee, where I finally realized my desire to paint inside the cafe. I wasn't sure that I would get a decent painting in there. The lights are dim and yellow. I decided to do some sketches and familiarize myself with the girl and the objects that were in front of me before attempting to paint. Once into the painting, it was hard to tell what colors I was truly mixing. I worked on an 8" x 6" panel, featuring one of the barristas behind the counter. I still have not seen the painting in good light, but I got several compliments from customers that were sitting near me, and Martin gave it a thumbs up.

We walked back to Looking Glass House in the rain. I enjoyed a hot shower, dressed and did some reading and writing in my book before we drove to the Raja Indian Restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous dinner.

Van Gogh in the news again

2011-10-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

Always newsworthy Van Gogh continues to intrigue and be a moneymaker for some.

This short article in the October 18, 2011 Toronto Star, concerns a book written by two Pulitzer Prize winning authors and their new book, Van Gogh, The Life.

I did some research after reading this article and found these links to the 60 minutes interviews and a third video with paintings and readings from Van Gogh's letters. If you like Van Gogh, these 60 Minutes videos are worth watching!
Life and Death of Van Gogh Part 1
Life and Death of Van Gogh Part 2
60 Minutes Overtime - with commentary, paintings and letters of Van Gogh

Here's a quote from Google Books concerning the new book: "Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, and though the broad outlines of his tragedy have long inhabited popular culture, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than seventy years. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh's life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination."

Audio/Visual & Gastronomique Overload

2011-10-19T09:58:00.000-05:00

Drinking a bowl of Cafe au Lait in Balzac's Coffee in Stratford, Ontario

Apple pancakes and Canadian bacon lovingly cooked by Jean
at the Looking Glass House B&B.

The latest version of the Yarka watercolor set, now marketed by Jack Richeson Company.

I am not sure, but the colors themselves seem to be the same as

those in my older Yarka set. But you can see that the half pans

don't stay put in this new packaging. Frustrating.

Balzac's Cafe Latte (large size) and my sketchbook
always a work in progress!

A forbidden photo of the inside of the Festival Theatre.

I snuck this photo not long after we were seated for the performance of Twelfth Night. There were 1400 high school students at this sold out performance. They were a well behaved audience, and the applause at the end was thunderous. I am always amused by the sounds the kids make when there is an onstage kiss, or when at the end of this performance, Count Orsino tells Cesario (after it's revealed that Cesario is really Viola, a girl pretending to be a boy) that she will be his mistress. Elizabethan audiences would have known that Orsino meant she would be his wife, but the kids thought something different.

A glass case in the hallway held an exhibition on wig making.

It's always fun to walk through the halls of the theatre. On display there will routinely be designer sketches of the current season's costumes and sets. Mannequins will be wearing past costumes with photos of actors wearing that costume in a past performance. This year, I was happy to see a display case featuring wig making. I cannot imagine the patience and dedication it takes to be a wig maker. All those knots to tie!!!

A wig in progress.

A view of the net that the wig maker attaches the hair to.

My humble sketch, just a memory for my book.

We were a bit early for the performance, so while we waited I did a ball point pen contour drawing of the long wig, my favorite, since it looked so French, and later I added the watercolor later from memory.

I won't even go into dinner.

Back in Stratford, Ontario

2011-10-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

We are comfortably installed in Looking Glass House, our favorite B&B in Stratford, Ontario. The link is the the Canadian B&B site, but Looking Glass House has it's own website. I just can't find it quickly enough here. I like to book directly from Jean, to save her paying extra fees to booking agencies.

So why are we here again?

(Wow, the colors here remind me of the T-shirt
I bought at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN last year.)

Martin, who has been working non-stop this past year, except for 5 days off in June to go to the Publisher's Invitational 'Paint the Adirondacks' event, needed a vacation. I encouraged him to ask for time off or the year would end, and he'd never get it. He chose to come back to Stratford and the Shakespeare Festival, which we both enjoy tremendously.

We drove up yesterday, but our day started with a 7:30am trip to our trainer, Charlie. What a great guy he is. Charlie is our second trainer, the first being the infamous Brad, who kicked our bodies for at least six months before moving on to become a fireman. Brad had some great sayings, like "Pain is our friend. When no one else around, pain is still with us." And one day when he was five minutes late, he said, "I am late, so you will be punished!" Brad was quiet, but effective, and we loved him. It was hard to think how we would adjust to another trainer, but Charlie has won our hearts.

Charlie has an Masters in Nutrition and Fitness from Ohio University, and for his young years, he has had some major health issues involving surgery and several reconstructive surgeries. He is more outgoing than Brad, just aquired a cat (named Bentley), and at times I come away from the workout feeling that he wasn't too hard on us. Then later our friend, Pain, shows up; but, not as often as before. So Charlie is either easier on us, or we are in better condition.

The Topiary Park, Columbus OH.
The creation of sculptor James Mason
fashionged after Georges Seurat's painting.

After the workout, we drove into Columbus, OH, where I have been teaching a 7-week class in plein air painting. The class met in the Deaf School Park. I copied the above photo from the website. After painting for 4 weeks (3 of them in the rain with students sequestered under the new Main Street Bridge), the promise of a sunny day had me wanting to get the students out to a location where they could work with green and strong light and shadow. Everyone was thrilled to get into this park and work with amorphic shapes rather than the hard-edged city.

Once class was over, Martin and I stopped at the two large art supply houses in the area. The first was Utrecht, not far from the park. I bought one panel for painting, just 4 x 4". I need to paint some miniatures for two different shows. For one of the shows, the painting and frame can't be larger than 40 sq. in. This is even small for me! I needed more panels, so we stopped at Blick Art Supply on the way out of the city, and two of my students were there shopping.

They were looking for palette knives and asked which was the closest to what I use, the Lowe-Cornell J-2. Blick doesn't sell that brand, but we found the Blick #57 to be about the same. I was happy to learn that as well. And after lunch next door, we hit the road for the 6 hour drive to Stratford.

As the crow flies, Stratford is straight north of Columbus, but we drove to Toledo, Detroit, crossed the border at Port Huron, and then over dark, dark, roads of southern Ontario, to arrive in Stratford around 9:00 PM. We went straight to Bentley's. Martin had a Steak and Mushroom Pie, just to get in touch with his roots. He'd have liked a Steak and Kidney, but . . .

I went straight to bed, and we were both awakened at 7:00 AM by an alarm in another room. He got up to turn it off, but said the door was locked. He just hadn't turned the handle far enough.

Breakfast was a wonderful plate of apple pancakes and Canadian bacon with real maple syrup. Fresh fruit, carrot and nut muffins, butter, yogurt, orange juice, and coffe and tea. Been a while since I'd eaten some of this stuff, but it is always great. Jean delights her clients each morning with a delicious breakfast, and that why Martin loves this place. Jean also always has the written versions of all the plays that the Festival is presenting that season. Although there is a TV and CD player, we don't bother to turn them on. We read, and now, she has this wireless connection, so I don't have to drag my laptop to Balzac's Coffee.

Now, I'll just take a leisurely stroll to Balzac's for a large cafe au lait!

Today at 2:00 PM we see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was written between 1599 and 1608, for Queen Elizabeth I. Quoting from Norrie Epsteins's Friendly Shakespeare, "Twelth Night is named for a holiday, about love and grief, their pains and their pleasures, and how the two emotions are often indistinguishable. Twelfth Night is festive, but it also skirts madness, dispair, sexual ambiguity and cruelty."

It also has one of my favorite characters, Malvolio!!! Quoting David Jones, "Malvolio's final cry of 'I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!' casts an even longer shadow over the play as it is going to have its answer 40 years down the line when the Puritans come to power in England and every theatre in London is shut down."

Here is a link to quotes from the play. During this same period he wrote Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, Othello, Measure for Measure, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra. WOW!!!!!

I'm sure that Olive Oil would say,
"Shakespeare, what a man, what a man."

The Shabby Side of the Short North Lights Up!

2011-10-08T18:14:00.000-05:00

The newly restored 'Garden' sign, minutes before it was lit for the first time in 32 years.

October 1st was the date for Ohio Plein Air Society members to come to the northern most block of the Short North, in Columbus, and create paintings of the facade of the old Garden Theatre, now The Short North Stage.

It was drizzly, and breezy, and chilly.

Edie Dean painting. I really wanted the LOTTERY sign lit up in this photo.

That combination makes for a sometimes miserable artist. But it was perfect weather for the seedier side of the Short North. Edie Dean was at work when I arrived, but we had already 'phone commed' a few times before I hit town.

As I reported for duty, Edie said, "This guy says we can set up under his awning." It was a liquor store, and at 9:30 AM there were a legion of thirsty customers passing through the door. It took me some time to settle in and get things going. I'd been out the night before at a Greek restaurant. Wine, belly dancing and song made for a fun-filled evening. But now, the reality of the task at hand was before me.

I slowly got my equipment gathered and to the sidewalk. I made two quick sketches to help me decide the size and shape of the canvas I'd work on. I'd toured this theatre two weeks prior to Saturday, and to make a long story short, fell in love with it, as did the two gentlemen that are making it's restoration and rebirth a reality.

The "GARDEN" sign was being re-lit on Saturday evening at 9:00 PM, an historic moment, not only for the theatre, but also for this shabby neighborhood.

But my job on that day was to depict it on canvas.

It seemed to take me a long time to get started. Was it fear, or thinking and planning? I'd like to say say it was the latter, but I believe it was a bit of both. I was spoiled for choice on the selection of canvas size for my painting. What I settled on was a 20" x 10" stretched canvas that had been hiding in my studio for the longest time. I'd forgotten that my easel only accommodates the height of a 16" canvas. So now, I had to take even more time, scooping up and moving down the large globs of oil paint that I'd just squeezed out into their usual spots at the top of my palette. In their place, I rested the bottom my the canvas.

Near the end of the painting a steady drizzle forced me
to move my easel forward under the awning.

It felt good to be painting. There was a sort of buzz in the air. The promise of the day, and the evenings event, but there was something more. Many were anticipating that afternoon's OSU game with their greatest rival, Michigan, and I knew that I was attending the opening of the Short North Stage and the re-lighting of The Garden Theatre sign!

What I didn't know was that a real life drama would come to me outside the walls of the theatre, in the form of a man named Jack, not his real name.

Jack crossed the street on the way to the store, and saw two artists. He stopped by Edie's easel first, and she kindly sent him to me. He liked what I was doing, and we started to banter back for what I thought would be a few minutes at most. I guess he was having a good a time jive talking with me, cause he wound up standing at either side of me for at least two hours!

Somehow, he got to telling me that his mother lived in New York, and that he had been a singer there. Right down my alley, since I had been a singer for a long time.

Jack sang "Superstar" and customized it for Edie and I.

We stood on the street, me painting, him singing,
sometimes singing together.

How I painted anything, I am not sure.

Jack was no stranger to bars, in any of their forms; he'd kicked life, and been kicked around by it; but, he still had his talent. And on this day, we connected on a human level, through our mutual love of music. Here I had a seasoned yet rusty singer right there on the street entertaining me while I painted! We started to talk about our favorite songs. He said he'd been a jazz singer, and had all the right lingo, and a voice that isn't as apparent in the video posted here. I believed every word that this nightingale told me.

I offered him $20.00 in exchange for the entertainment. I can still hear the warm tone in his voice when he later said, "Deb, why did you give me that money? You didn't have to do that." I replied, "I gave it to you for the songs that you gave to me. You can give it back if you want to." "No," he said thoughtfully, "I need it." I had to laugh to myself. We had connected pretty deeply. He was very open with me about his life. Some of what he told me resonated on a personal level; some of what he said I'd seen first hand in my own family. My time with him enriched me, made me feel less judgemental. Jack had a story, and good one, but I can't tell it properly without his permission.

All the while, people walking north to the OSU tailgate parties sometimes stopped to talk, or admire my painting, and one of them happened to be a photographer from the Columbus Dispatch. He asked if he could take some photos of me painting. But first he took photos of me and Jack, and Jack by himself. Then he wanted Jack to move to the side so he could photograph the painting. Jackie wasn't too happy about that, and by the time the photographer had finished, the songbird had vanished into thin air! No goodbyes.

Here's a link to Ty Wright's photo that appeared
in the October 4th Dispatch.

New Series: "27 Dresses"

2011-09-12T01:16:00.000-05:00

Late afternoon on Saturday, I was painting on

High Street in the Short North of Columbus, OH.

I talked to some very nice folks while painting that afternoon. One of these folks was also a photographer. He was polite enough to ask me if he could take some photos,

and I asked if he'd send them to me.

His name is Ronell Jones.

Ron, thanks so much for the great photos of me painting the dresses.

Saturday was one of the dates that was scheduled as a paintout day for the Ohio Plein Air Society's upcoming 10th Year Anniversary Exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Art.

The first time I went out to paint in the Short North for this exhibition, the thing that spoke to me was the wedding dress shop.

"White Wedding", 6" x 12", Oil on Panel
Copyright 2011 Debra Joyce Dawson

That was April 30th, just a few days after the royal wedding took place. Yes, I did watch the entire thing, and I can only think that that was part of the inspiration that day.

But it could have just been that I was tired of painting landscape, and this was like painting people, only they didn't move at all.

Still, at the August paintout in Milford, OH, the trend continued when I painted a jewelry store window because it was the best thing I saw that day! In the window were two child-sized manikins dressed in home-made tutu's.

The green tutu was made of a chartreuse feather boa,

and the pink one was out of a net fabric.

The little hands at the bottom were sporting jewelry.

"Too, Too", 12" x 10", Oil on Museum Board
Copyright 2011 Debra Joyce Dawson

Thanks to Martha Carmody for the

above photo of my painting on the easel.
And thanks to my buddy Edie Dean for the title!
Where would this gal be without her friends?

The colors, shapes and textures of the tutu's were irresistible,
and even though I did try to get away and paint that Miami River,

I just couldn't do it.

This window worked its magic on me.

So after that second painting, I made the decision

to do a series named after the movie
"27 Dresses".

As I painted the third in the series, a man walked by me, saying as he passed me the second time, "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride?", and a dress disappeared from the window and reappeared later, like magic! I never saw it go or come back, I only missed it when I went to define that area of my painting.

The public is delighted with these paintings, and they seem to lead to lots of conversations on the street; five artists stopped at my easel on Saturday to talk, and to tell me what I was doing right or wrong; and one of them decided that she liked that subject so much that she too needed to paint this window. So the cat is out of the bag now.

I was trying to keep my dresses in the closet for a while, but not now.

And what a joy to have friends with cameras and titles!

Thanks again Ron, Martha and Edie.

A Porky Day

2011-09-06T20:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is a roasted pig head in the case.

This man is my hero. He was at the market both of the Tuesdays that I was there. He sold roasted pork! As my Mom used to say, "pork, my favorite meat." Now, if you have reasons for not eating pork, that is your problem, but not mine. My problem was getting close enough to this guy to get a bite. His porchetta stand was always packed. I just stood from afar and took photos. I could never get a good one of him as the bar of the counter was always right in the middle of his face, even when he stopped working for a fraction of a moment so I take get his photo.

The first time I saw him, there was an entire roasted body of a pig around 5 months old, head and legs removed, but skin intact! It was a hugh piece of roast pork that he sliced from. On this second Tuesday, we arrived at the market later in the morning, and he had already sold about 3/4 of this new carcass, sending away might happy customers.

I just took more photos and said to myself, "that must be really good for these folks to line up as they do." 'The Prochetta Man' cut per order, placing the meat on a piece of butcher paper. His customers could also tell him if they wanted some crispy skin, or some of the stuffing that was inside the pig. His assistant weighed the meat and took the money, and Porchetta Man just kept slicing. They also made panini sandwiches.

I just watched, and wondered. I walked away several times, and as I walked away for what i knew would be the last time in my life, I said to myself, "Are you nuts? You LOVE pork, and you are dying to know just how good this is. GO TRY IT!" So I got in line. When I got to about number three in line, I could see the sign on the glass saying what he sold along with the prices. I had no idea, except that they sold a sandwich.

Now next up at bat, he asked me if I wanted a panini. I said "no," made the 'small gesture' with my thumb and index finger and said, "picolo". He understood me, smiled, and sliced a piece of meat, rolled it and placed it in a napkin and handed it to me, free of charge with a big smile.

I walked away with the morsel and popped the entire thing in my mouth all at once. It was truly a little slice of heaven! Succulent, perfectly seasoned, and melted in my mouth. It was worth the wait, and just enough for an exquisite memory.

Later that day, we were off to Orvieto. We went to see the Duomo, but not far from the parking up a narrow street, this is what we came to.

A wild boar head trophy.

I just had to get my photo with it.

If you could see it, you would know that the charm on the necklace I am wearing is a pig, given to me by my granddaughter for Christmas some years ago now. I love pigs, ever since I met the pink pigs that my brother-in-law was keeping. They had such personality, and intelligence, and they stood and posed for me while I recorded my first pig drawings in a sketchbook. Fun stuff!

Below is a photo of this large boar

and the man that took the trophy.

Look at the size of it!!!

It could have killed him I suppose with those tusks.

Above is the profile shot!

And below, much later I came across this tile sign.

Made me smile, and reminded me of the end of the movie 'Fargo'!

If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

And on my last day in Italy, in Perugia,

here were images of boars on a very fine and famous fountain.

Who knew there was such a love of pigs and boar in Italy?

Yet more proof that this animal is loved was a comment to me from Diego, at the Civetella Raniera Castle. He saw my necklace and said,

"I like your necklace, because I love that animal."

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Author Fellow Presentation

2011-09-02T01:58:00.000-05:00

Author Fellow, Charles Bock, 9-1-2011.

At last night's 'fellow presentation' at the Civitella Ranieri,

Mr. Bock read from the novel he is currently working on.

Bock's long list of writing credentials is topped by

at least one novel that was on the New York Times bestseller list.

When he began with his 'thank you' section, his voice seemed weak, almost apologetic, but I will in the end call it, shyness. I know the feeling as an artist, when you put your work before the eyes of the public. A sort of dread of the comments.

Bock likened his project to the murals in Assisi, a long process and one that can only be completed by doing the simple things on a daily basis. Do what you need to do that day until it is complete.

But it all worked out fine. The novel is a heavy one of illness and dying, and he got quite emotional while reading some sections. Clearly there is illness happening in his family.

And his section on a diahrea episode of a patience is one that I had experienced myself, and so I can attest to the authenticity of those paragraphs.

It was an intimate time, with an audience of about 20, many of them fellows, and some of the jury that had just completed their job of selecting candidates for this fellowship for the coming year.

A great way to wind down this trip.

Looking inside my Shanghai lunch pail.

Noodles in a cream sauce with pig, and a salad in the next container.

We had painted in the early morning at the castle, and then had lunch served in a lunch pail from Shanghai. Then we made a quick trip to Gubbio, described as the fairytale medieval village, and it was. We had time to climb to the top, and have a gelati and return for the presentation.

Saint of the day - St Crispolto

2011-09-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

From the 'Aphrodite Room' in the Museo dei Bettona.

Yesterday morning, I went to the Museo dei Bettona.

There were a couple of photos of the objects that were in that Etruscan tomb that I wrote about previously. The actual objects must be in Perugia. Among those objects, there were

some lovely rings and earrings.

This was one of my favorite things in the museo's acheology section.

I love little amphoras, and I made a drawing of this in my sketchbook.

In the painting section, I found this lovely fresco

of the Madonna and Child.

There were three Periginos in this small museo.

This one is of St Francesco.

Here the Madonna shielding two Saints

under her large mantle.

And here, another madonna with child
and some Saints at her feet.

Below, a detail of one of the Saints,

don't know his name, let's just say that he sseems

to have suffered a little. That IS a saw blade in his head, right?

And so seems to go the bloodly history of Christianity.

And then ___ I came across the story of our

'Saint of the Day':
St Crispolto

Again, I found info on him in several places, but he is so 'early' that there isn't too much written about him. He is first century, and was such a do-goer, performing miracles in Bettona, that the Romans decided they needed to make an example of him.

The long painting was divided into five parts.

I had no idea who Crispolto was at the time, but later read that he is the Parton Saint of Bettona. This first part shows him helping someone.

Next, is one of two paintings of the Saint that seperated

the three story panels.

Below are the Roman soliders arresting the Saint.

Then, the second of the two portraits of the Saint

that separate the story panels.

Certainly not least, but it is the last of the story. I was amazed by this one, as I've never seen anything like this before. It's definitely a different twist on the torture of a Saint. Evidently, the Romans tried to kill Crispolto twice, but he didn't die. So, they tortured him to death.

Below is Dono Doni's depiction of that torture.

Of course Doni is painting in the 1500's, but still, did he make this up, or was this something that was actually going on, or was there more documentation of

how Crispolto died?

Burning questions, and I have no answers.

Let this be a lesson to us all, don't just oooh and ahhh over the large paintings (as lovely as the 'Adorazioni dei pastori' was) we can't forget to find the interesting stuff that is in the small paintings at the bottom.

I went from torture straight to lunch at the pastry shop.

Espresso with what sort of looked like little chocolate-filled croissants.

The inside had chocolate, and more pastry like, but the top had some really crunchy stuff and the combo was wonderful. I took the second one of these to Susie at the fabricca.

But I had a figue gelati first.

Leetle Ricki, Bread, Olive Oil, and more

2011-09-01T16:16:00.000-05:00

Leetle Ricki on his owner's head.

Suzanne tutta panna is so-a sad-a tonight-a.

Her leettle Ricki is-a gone. And she is

a singing 'Arrividerci Roma'

when the truth of the matter is that

she would not-a let me make-a the turn-a for Roma. Not ever!

But-a she deed let me take her to her home-a town-a of Bastardo.

But day after tomorrow, we must make-a the turn-a to Roma.

Here-a below-a, I promise you the ricette for the authetico

delicacy d'Italia, avec des photos.

Now that is what I call multi-lingual.

Hard as a rock bread from our neighbor!!!

And below the rest of the ingredients.

Below is the bread sprinkled with H2O,

and soaked in lots of oliva olio.

Sprinkle with sale,

and add hot peppers at your own taste!

Delicioso!!!

DRAT-SI (I make up my own Italiano)
I forget to get the ricette for the bread!

Happy Anniversary and Castle

2011-09-01T02:09:00.000-05:00

Me at the market on Tuesday morning. I saw this guy crossing the road, and he was so elegant that I said, "Buongiorno." He responded and I said to Susie that I'd love to have his photo. She encouraged me enough that I asked if he would pose for one photo with me. He was very accommodating and so here is my Italian fellow, 94 years old and looking great.

But not as great as my wonderful husband, who I am wishing a very Happy Anniversary. We have been married 21 years today, after a long distance courtship of nine years! I do hope that he took the day off as he has been working very hard, and don't forget, he survived the earthquake last week! I love you Martin!

Here in Italy, today we are heading north to Civitella Ranieri Castle. It was purchased by one of the Cornings, and has been a foundation for writers, artists and musicians for many years. Susie was invited to go here last year when she met the administrator who was ordering a dinner service from Ubaldo Grazie.
Take a look http://www.civitella.org/

The plan was to be there around 10am to paint, and then take an afternoon trip to Gubbio, east of the castle, and back at the castle for a presentation by one of their writer fellows and a glass of wine, possibily dinner there as well. Lunch has been thrown in there, so don't know, we let the day unfold as it comes.

Below, plums at the market. They reminded me of Manet and his plum paintings. He painted every color, and they always looked as good as the real thing.

I have a new, or old, Saint to delight you with, but I haven't downloaded those photos from yesterday's trip to the Bettona Museum. Maybe tonight.

It's a lovely day in the neighborhood!

2011-08-30T15:33:00.000-05:00

Thees eez my friend 'Suzanna tutta panna'.

Thees eez from a leettle Italian nursery rhyme and means creamy.

Luana at the fabbrica calls Susie thee-sa because of

her white skin and hair.

I have been making up a little story about my friend Suzanna.

She likes to cut-a the heads off of dee sunflowers with her knife-a!

She keeps dee chickens, and she dresses in dee clothes

of her dear departed Mother.

She is the talk of Umbria!

And in her spare time-a, paints dee pottery!

Dee maioliche.

Obviously, I have too much time on my hands tonight.

We went to Orvieto today.

When I download the photos I will tell you more about that.

We have-a new neighbors as of yesterday. They are traveling with a leettle bird, and I have-a to keep an eye on Suzanna to make-a sure she doesn't confiscate it, and turn it into a pattern at the fabricca! She says he ees a CUTIE, but I know she has dee ulterior motives for thees-a 'Ricky Bird'.

Our neighbors tonight have given us some bread that the wife has-a made. It is very hard roll-like bread! The husband tells us how to prepare thees Italian specialty. First you take this hard-a bread, and sprinkle a leettle, very leettle water on it. Next, you place the sliced pomdori on top. Add some olive oil, salt and some pepper, and voila! You eat it happily.

Suzanna tutta panna, would like to also add a little basil,

but no one has provided it yet today.

We have been lucky with people giving us food. Ubaldo has provided us with fresh tomatoes from his garden. Luana has given us fresh eggs from her chickens, and now this bread comes out of no where. The neighbors also insisted that we take some tomatoes that they brought from their garden, and they also offered some hot peppers, which I will particulary enjoy.

We will have this for breakfast tomorrow. I will make sure to take some photos of this.

Their little bird is a love bird. Its partner passed away, and the bird is now on the road on vacation with the family. My sister used to have a pair of love birds. The coloring in this Italian one is slightly more different, more yellow green, and pale pink cheeks, and a lovely turquoise, called celest - sky blue, on its back when it spreads its wings. The bird is called Ricky!

And he likes to sit on the head of Suzanna tutta panna.

So that is what is going on in our neighborhood.

Caoi!

Strada dei Vino Cameria

2011-08-30T02:12:00.000-05:00

Such a gorgeous bunch of grapes.
I stopped at a winery this morning on my way to Montefalco.
It's somewhere bewteen Bettona and Bevagna
along the Strada dei Vino Cameria.

I dropped Susie off at the fabricca and decided to just take my time driving to Montefalco. I said to myself, today is thhe day that I will stop at the Etruscan Tomb, at the foot of the village of Bettona. Bettona has a gorgeous silhouette, but I haven't got a photo of it yetl. That is a goal for me. Maybe tomorrow.

The tomb sits right on a curve in the road, and is always upon me before I know it. But today, I slowed down and stopped on the side of the road.

Here is the entrance, which was locked.

There were also quite a few cobwebs between the grating. But I stuck my camera through the holes, and here is what was inside.

Stone sarcophagi. Emptied of their contents.

And 'loosely translated', it seemed that all the gold and silver

was taken to the museums in Perugia and Bettona.

Bavagna was the next landmark village on the roundabouts.

Susie had taken me there our first day here.

I didn't drive up and into Bevagna, just around it. Below was a flat valley with lovely farms, each and every view was paintable. The morning sun is relentlessly bright and my eyes always feel a bit fried.

I fell in love with this farm, which doesn't look like much here. I intend to paint this someday from a photo. I did contemplate painting it from life, but the road was a fairly busy one, and I was pulled off in a precarious place to take some photos, and also made a rather quick sketch in my book.

Not far from there was the entrance to a winery.

One can see these trees all lined up for a long time before making the turn to get to this entrance. I drove up, having already pre-decided to buy a bottle of Umbrian wine.

I tasted three red wines from Umbria. The strong blackberry-flavored wine, Sagrentino, was the most unique and tasted the best. The woman said, "forte". It is forte, and the only place in the wrold the frapes are grown is in Montefalco.

I paid 17.50 Euros for the bottle and went on my merry way.

As I pulled away I saw was greeted with a view

that I think everyone feels they will see in Italy.
It was lovely in the morning sun.

I continued to climb higher and higher past outstanding views

of farms, olive groves and fields of vines.

I arrived in Montefalco about 10:30 am.

I parked in the large parking lot just outside of town, and walked up and in through the wall. Not too far up the road was a church on the left. I went in.

More gorgeous statues, and frescos.

I really liked these small frescos, each about 8 x 10" in size.

What fresh and wonderful color in these angels.

And I love the look of dread on the face of the guy with the hat!

And who went around hacking of the face of Christ!?

There were three reasons that I decided to visit Montefalco, the local wine, the Museo di San Francesco (used to be a church), with a 6 Euro entrance fee, to see the 'sumptuous fresco cycle of Bennozo Gozzoli on the life of St. Francis' Rough Guide, and also one fresco by Perigino, among many others. No photos were allowed inside.

And the third reason was,

St. Clare, not the one from Assisi.

Just read what the Rough Guide has to say about Saint Clare,

and tell me that you wouldn't want to experience this!

'Probably the most bizarre sight is the mummified body of St Chiara, which languishes in the otherwise dismal church of the same name, five minutes walk from the San Francesco in via Verdi . . . ring the bell, and if the nuns are not deep in prayer, they may show you around the adjoining convent - a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at monastic life, where you can see the remains of the saint's heart and the scissors used to hack it out. The story goes that Christ appeared to Clare, saying the burden of carrying the cross was becoming too heavy; Clare replied she would help by carrying it in her heart. When she was opened up after her death, a cross-shaped piece of tissue was duly found on her heart. Other strange exhibits include three of her kidney stones and a tree that miraculously grew from a staff planted in the garden here by Christ, during one of his appearances to Clare; the berries are used to make rosaries and are said to have powerful medicianl qualities."

So, fortified during lunch with a little Sagrantino wine, I went in search of the church and St Chiara. It was easy enough to find.

Here is the church, and below a poster near the door.

There was information about two events that

took place earlier this month. DRATS!

I walked all around the sides of the church that were accessible, but no bell anywhere. There was this knocker and sign on the door.

and beside the sign, this knocker.

I knocked loudly, three times, but no reply.

I wasn't the only one disappointed, but I expect that the nuns are tired of the knocking.

I liked this little iron door in the wall. Just about 5 x 6 inches. Don't know exactly what might have been passed in and out of the convent through that little door, but I can tell you that there was a piece of crushed up paper stuffed behind it, most likely by some pesky tourist, or a cheeky teenager.

Susie wanted to know more about St. Clare, so I went online last night and did more research on her. Wikipedia has quite an article about her life, and there were numerous sites from the Catholic Church. Info is out there. I found one photo of a mural with Christ planted that cross in her heart, and one picture of her heart in a reliquary.

But not to leave you disappointed, I am posting three photos of a mummified person that was in the first church I went into in this town. let me tell you, Umbria is not for the faint of heart. And Montefalco is home to more Saints than any other town in Italy!

I think I still prefer the burning ghats of Varanase.

I did go on to investigate the term 'incorrupt body', which is what they described St. Clare as having. That is another thing to investigate on your own, if you are interested. It's the state where the body doesn't decompose after death. No smell, and the flesh is pliable. Evidently, according to one article that I read, this state only happens to devout Catholics. The research is out there if you have a need to know.

The things you learn traveling!

I got very lost coming home yesterday. I just couldn't find the small sign that said Bavagna and drove around for way too long trying to get back. I did get this lovely view of Trevi, and a nicer way to end this entry.

Catching up!

2011-08-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

Here I am with the 'custodian' of the church at the portal of the church in Torgiano that I wrote about yesterday. The folder in his arm is a family history of his two sons that are living in America. One son is a policeman in NYC, and the other is in the legislature in Buffalo, NY. He is showing me an envelop from one of them with the NY address and pointing out his address in Italy.

And here is the painting that I did.

Susie and I have decided to buy this place and make it our 'scuola' in Torgiano.

I am sure that the new atelier is

as old as this wonderful tree trunk!

And just down the street from 'wild boar pasta'!

Tired tonight. I had a full day of touring, eating, shopping, a little drinking, and of course getting lost on my return from Montefalco.

And to calm down, Susie and I cooked a great dinner,

and had some white wine from Cantina Tundernum.

Grecchetto di Todi

2010

I read that this is now the rival of the Orvietto.

I think I bought it when we returned to Todi to get my sketchbook.

Torgiano Adventures

2011-08-28T15:02:00.000-05:00

I am sitting in Susie's room, at her desk,

drinking my last glass of:
'Aglianico del Vulture'

Denominazione di Origine Controllata

2007

Cantina di Venosa
Venosa - Italia

I bought this bottle at the Deruta grocery.

It was a toss up between a rosso wine called Violet 2011,

or this 2007 'Vulture'.

Of course, Vulture won hands down,

but I haven't forgotten the Violet.

What to write about this evening?

The trip to Firenze - we didn't go into Firenze,

been there, and had a mission to go on,

someone to meet.

No, not tonight, even though

we did stop in Cortona on the way home.

I have no photos downloaded from yesterday, and no photos downloaded from today, so I will post photos that I like while I tell the story of today. And since I know that Audrey likes the coffee and pastry photos, Audrey, these are for you, from the same wonderful local shop with the apple pastry.

This outrageously wonderful cake had star fruit,

and berries and leaves.

Wouldn't you love to be able to whip out a
cake like this at a party?

And the espresso ristretto.

High test. No more than 2 tablespoons.

Today, Susie and I decided to go and paint. She didn't want to go far, and we decided to go to Torgiano, just north of Deruta. They have a great tower that we look over at each and every day, several times a day. Actually, they have two great towers. One is fortified and large, restored, or as the guide book mentions the Italians are doing, overly restored. It is impressive from the road, but I like my antiquities a little less restored.

The second tower is the campanile - the bell tower of the church.

Together, they make for a wonderful skyline.

Simonetta in the front and Laura and her fine Roman nose in the back. We were dicussing our respective ages and Simonetta was making the sad face over her age. That was until I told her my age. She looked at me hard and said, "Well preserved."

I realize that this entry will sound a little disjointed, but hey

'the Vulture' is in charge, I think.

Talk about your Vulture!

I took this photo in Assisi.They were having a medieval fair.

You know I wanted to buy one of these masks,

but I didn't even ask the price.

Now, back to today.

Susie said she could just paint a view that we passed of the village up on the hill, with the trees and vines below. She said I could drop her off. I turned the car around to look for parking. She said I could park on the side of the road, but I am not officially Italian yet, so I thought I'd park in the church lot across the street.

Turned out to be a great place cause we stood in the shadow of the church,

and there was shade the entire time from the church.

Of course in the first few mintues we were there, up pulls a car with an elderly man in it. He rattled away in Italian to me, and of course I had to confess to him that I had no idea what he was actually saying. Still, I figured he wanted to know what we were doing. Once we explained, in English, that we were painters, he gave us the green light to stay there and paint. He drove off. So you see, he doesn't need to speak English, and we don't need to speak Italian, and it works somehow.

From the church in the old town of Deruta.

Susie painted an 11 x 14" canvas, and I did an 8 x 10".

Of course the old guy had to come back. He had done the official thing in the car, and now he was coming to visit! And another old guy showed up as well. The man in the car was the custodian of the church. He talked away and away to me, and I just nodded and said "really" or "si" and he keeps talking.

He is telling me some history of the church, and takes me to the building itself to show me some graffiti where people have carved the age of the church. 1625. But carved there beside it is 1267.

Finally I say to him with my hands,
"You can show me inside the church?"

He says he can.

I figured he'd let us paint for a while. But he was back with the key quickly, along with his daugher and granddaughters. She spoke great English, and we learned that the church is only open for special occasions now. Weddings for sure, as we saw lots of confetti, or sequins that they must throw at the couple as they come out of the church.

From the church in Old Deruta.

When the custodian opened the door to the church and spoke

with his resonant voice, I could already hear

the echoing of the sound inside.
It was a lovely church indeed.

chiesa SS. Crocifisco (sec. XVII)

For some reason, I stepped inside and just had to sing one note, just to hear it. My Father, many years ago was in the basilica in Pisa and said the guide sang a scale for them to hear the acoustics. Eight notes. Daddy said when the singer was on the last note, he could still hear the first note in the air high up in the space above him.

This acoustics in this church were very much like this.

I asked the daughter if it was alright if I sang a song. She misunderstood and started telling me something about the church. So, when she finished, I asked again. She said it was fine.

I was very nervous, but I sang three verses of Amazing Grace. I sang softly and very loudly, and it was wonderful to hear the sound in there.

The custodian and Susie got out their cameras and phones and recorded it, and the church. I haven't seen or heard any of that, but it was a very special moment for me, and I think for everyone there. Oh to sing in a space like that!

We finished our paintings and went up into the village itself. We went into a little place for pizza, but no pizza today. Not enough traffic to warrant firing up the oven on a Sunday. So I had of all things, pasta, yet again. But this time, I got it with wild boar!

I have been wanting wild boar every since Jeff told me he had some in Tuscany two years ago. This one, Jeff, was in a red sauce, and quite good. The surprise for me was that the lady told me small noodles, and it turned out to be large hose-like noodles. About half the size of a manicotti, cooked al dente, and to perfection.

I was really tired after eating that.

Must be why they take a siesta.

I end tonight with a photo of the screaming kid in Assisi.

I hope that his Mother took him home and loved him.

Or, I hope that he kicked her all the way home

to teach her a lesson.

Caio!

Lemon Topiary Design

2011-08-27T02:51:00.000-05:00

Above at the left, you see the first, and best,

oil painting that I have done here in Italy.

"Lemon Topiary", 8" x 6" on RayMar Panel

I have only painted four oils in this past week. Pretty sad on the oil painting side, but I have done several nice watercolors in my sketchbook, and also spent many days painting in the fabricca.

It all started because Susie felt I was here and should at least paint something as a keepsake. We combed through the bisque ware and I chose a round pot that I would use for pens or small brushes. I needed inspiration for a design, and the only thing I could think of was my lemon tree topiary. Below is the pot with that design on it.

It was painted effortlessly and without much thought. As I have already said, I did a lot of ceramics in the 1970's when my daughter was small. At age two, she was also in the shop painting some pieces alongside me and my Mother.

The next morning we went to the local market, and I found a lemon with some branch still attached and bought it. I took it into the fabricca and painted it on the back of this piece.

The back of the pot. And at the top you see the indentation

where Riccardo holds the piece with some pliers.

This is all fixed at the end after it's painted.

Just a freehand lemon applied with no sense of importance. The last touches were to add some stripes. One in green and one in bright orange. On tihis piece I did it myself, after watching Katia do it for Susie. I thought, "How hard can it be with a little wheel to sit the piece on and just touch the brush to the edge?" It wasn't too bad, not perfect, but okay, and I left it as a record of what I could do at that time.

Next day, in comes Ubaldo, the owner. He says to me, "This is very nice. You should do it on a plate." I asked, "A small plate, or tray?" "No," he said, "on a dinner plate. One in dark yellow and one in white."

So it was now back to the bisqueware. I painted two dinner plates, this time letting Katia do the stripes. I took her advice on color and placement. After all, she is an expert at painting and also at maioliche, and she would be tasteful about it. The finished plates looked great, and they have also been sitting forever on the sidelines, on a board that when filled with our stuff would be carried to the kiln.

The hand of Katia painting a boar design.

I had the afternoon now to kill, and a little rectangular plate to paint. Katia suggested the a holly branch from the tree outside. She picked one for me, but I felt the design too complex, and in the end, not really what I wanted. I sketched some olive branches with green olives, but Katia didn't like that too much, most likely cause it was all grey green. So, I walked around the workroom searching for something to paint, and taking photos of the women and what they were painting. On the sidetable were a set of plates with the designs pounced on them. One had a duck, another a rabbit, and much to my excitement, a boar, on the third! Katia was working in this set of plates. She applied all the striped first. I took my drawing book over to the table and sketched the boar in my book. That was what I was going to paint. She had a catalog sample for colors, and the orange background just made it that much more exciting for me!

Her linework was fine and sure, but she has a brush with just a few hairs. I will have to post the picture of one of the brushes they use for line work. We don't have one of these few hair brushes, bit it would help. At anyrate, you see the thickest of her line, and here is mine!

My happy boar!

A woman from Holland, who now lives in Italy, said she liked mine better because the pig had character, and a smile. Not that it's a contest. I was just thrilled to be inspired by this old design. And I will have a new soap dish that makes me very happy.

And my pig all finished and ready and waiting to go into the kiln.

He was carried away yesterday to the kiln, and they will fire on Monday.

Yesterday, we learned that the light yellow that Susie said 'was the white' that Ubaldo wanted wasn't correct, so I painted four more plates, as some of the plates will be left with Ubaldo. He loves my design (of course we haven't seen it fired, so who knows) and is going to take the samples to new York and show them to the buyer at Bergdoff Goodman!

Yikes! Wouldn't that be fun for something that started as a keepsake.

Sorry if there are lots of mistakes,

we are off to find a place near Firenze.

Caio!

Assisi or Bust

2011-08-25T15:52:00.000-05:00

Apple tart with cappuccino on the way to the fabrica.

We got up late. DRATS! My plan was to get up early, but, it didn't happen. Afterall, we didn't go swimming until 10:30pm. And I said I was going straight to bed, but I did the blog last night. Susie said she was up at 4:30am doing email, and then back to bed at 6:30 and she got up when I did.

We had some cereal, cashew nuts, I had yogurt and she gave us each a half a fig and half a red plum for breakfast. We have no coffee here, and we usully get it at the fabricca when someone offers it. But today, I said I was taking her to the place that I stopped at on the way to paint a pear orchard.

Here is yesterday's cappuccino, after two sips.

I knew there was writing in that cup.

I ordered, "Due cappuccino, per favore." in my best Italiano! Yeah right.

Susie spied the apple tart; I dare not look at those things.

She asked if I'd eat half of one of those if she got it.

I ate my apple thingy, and took my coffee in hand to look at the other pasties.

You can do the translating on this one and the next.

This one is a mystery, so if anyone knows what it is, please let me know.

I dropped Susie at the fabricca to do what she came here to do, work on her pottery line. I decided I needed to do what I came here to do, landscape painting.

I headed in the direction of Bettona, where Susie had taken me the afternoon we arrived in Deruta. You can see Assisi from there, and the hills are covered in olive trees. There is an Etrusca tomb on one bend that I'd like to stop and see, but I can't figure where to stop to see it. There's also 'old stuff'' like Roman mosaics in the town itself.

There are some safe pull offs at the edge of an olive orchard,

and that was where I decided to set up and paint.

This is what I attempted to paint. It looks so simple in this photo, but it wasn't.

I wasn't totally dissatisfied with my painting. I sure did do battle with it. I will have a look see tomorrow and decide if I think it's got any of the character of this place.

It was shady and cool where I stood to paint, but I was extremely thirsty at the end of the painting. I downed my small bottle of water fast on the short drive uphill to Bettona. Instead on going inside the walls of the town, I drove around the outside of the wall. There was a lot of parking available, and several spaces directly across for a view I admired. I parked and got out with my sketchbook. I decided to paint, but I felt tired.

I should have had an espresso! But I didn't think about it.

It was all there: parking, shade, and a view; yet, Assisi was calling me, and I wanted to see if I could actually get there and back. I got back in the car, thought about it, got back out of the car, and in the end, got back into the car, and started the drive to Assisi by the back roads.

Susie said she didn't think it would be good for me to go there by myself. But I did it. The trip there was easy, all roads lead to Assisi, or to Rome or to Perugia. I navigated the roundabouts easily to Assisi.

The parking was a different story. I actually was motioned into the 'smart parking lot', the first one I came to, downhill, or below the church. I actually went into that parking lot, got my ticket, and decided that wasn't the one that I needed. It was indoors, with elevators, and I was unsure. So I left that lot. It didn't take any of my money, maybe because I was in there a minute or so. Now I was switch-backing up the hill to the top of Assisi. Little did I realize I would end up at the wrong end of the town.

I parked with no problem,

and had to walk all the way downhill to the

Basilica San Francesco.

Centro of Assisi, with the fountain!

Before I reached the 'centro' of Assisi, I stopped to ask a man how far to the basilica. He said it was straight ahead, only one way, about 12 minutes. I kept my mind on the time as I had to get back to get Susie no later than 6pm.

Yes, downhill and sometimes steep. (Thank heavens Brad, our old trainer, had made us do so many stairs! It sure did help me today.) When I reached the centro, I looked around to make sure which corner I'd come out of for my return trip.

There was a medieval fair going on.

Here's what I found interesting there:

Leather masks!

and

this Rembrant-like artist.

Had I known, I'd have brought down my easel

and joined him as he painted.

I followed the signs and finally came out at the other side, and there she was!

No photos are allowed inside the basilica. No entry fees either! I entered and found myself taken back to my first visit here, walking around with a graduating senior, and ancient studies major. She was a Giotto fan, and we walked around the murals together and I listened to the passion in her voice as she talked about these masterpieces.

I visited the tomb, and viewed the relics. St. Francis died in the 1200's, and they have his habit in a glass case. It's in pretty good shape, with lots of patches. There are several other items there, one that I found an oddity. It looked to be a piece of skin, like someone had cut it from aorund the eye socket of someone, and included some of the cheek skin. I haven't yet read the phamphlet that will tell me what this was.

I left the basilica satisfied that I'd seen the Giotto murals,

and that I'd driven there without problems.

I took this photo just outside the church.

Call or visit this website.

I climbed back up the hills, some harder than others. Along the way there was a screaming little boy. He was Asian in decent and the way he was crying I am sure that most everyone thought that he was lost. However, his Mother, or guardian was standing right next to him.

A passerby woman tried to comfort him, and he reached out for the woman standing there with her arms folded. I could only see the back of her, but her body language was of disgust, and when he reached for her in fear of the stranger, she backed away from him. She was showing no mercy in the shadow of the basilica.

I wondered what the story was, but I didn't want to watch it.

I took two photos of them and continued my climb to the parking lot.

Once there, I got out my parking ticket and tried to insert it in the macine to open the gate. I figured it would show me how much i had to pay, and I'll put the money in the slot. NO! I had to ask someone that was coming in. He was very sympoathetic to my cause and tried to help, but in the end he asked the car behind me to help. Two young men, and after a little discussion, they said I had to go to the kiosk at the other end of the lot and pay and then come back with my stamped ticket. That was a small price to pay to have them help me figure this out.

I was driving the route I'd come in reverse now.

Things were moving along fine, but I wasn't seeing the signs for Bettona at the round abouts. I got off into a town where I didn't want to be, and finally asked a young man how to get there. Simple he said. he pointed and explained in limited English.

I found the roundabout and it said Bettona, it was straign ahead, but so many roundabouts and none of them from then on saying Bettona. I floundered thinking that I was missing the sign somewhere, and so I found a man in his garden and stopped to ask.

My opening line is, "No Italiano." If they speak English, they do as best as they can. I just show the map and say with a question in my voice, "Bettona?"

He motioned to go straight ahead, about 2k, and pointed to the mountain, mentioned a bridge and he was correct on all accounts. Nice little man.

So I was back to get
Susie at 5:30pm.

Whew! I am not proof reading.

Buonanotte.

Painting Maioliche

2011-08-24T17:32:00.000-05:00

So this turns into . . .

this!!!

Quanto costa?

1,000 Euros

Let me introduce you to some of the ladies

that are doing the painting in the fabbrica.

Meet Laura.

She's works away without saying much,

but she is always singing along to the radio,

and especially loud when her favorite tunes come on.

Well, I surprised Laura this afternoon.

After pleasantly listening to her lovely voice for the past two and one half days in the 'decoratrici' - the decorating room - a song came on that I know and love.

It was an Italian version of "Missing You", by John Waite. Laura started to sing, and maybe becasue I was feeling particularly happy today, I just couldn't stop myself from joining her, only in English. The entire workroom stopped, and then burst into smiles and mild laughter. They loved it, and Laura was beaming! The song wasn't over, and she wanted to hear me again, in English.

"I ain't missing you at all (beat, beat), since you've been gone, (beat) away."

What a good time had. I hadn't sung in Italy since 1985 when I sang "All of Me' in a restaurant in Rome with a live band. But you know, I think today was more fun, and a wonderful way to connect with a woman whose talent I admire, whose language I can't speak!

The hand of Simonette.

She is putting the makers marks on the bottom of the cup

before she starts to paint it.

More tomorrow. I have to download my camera

to get the other ladies' photos for you.

Oh, one last thing. My husband Martin is working in Virginia.

I emailed to ask him if he felt the earthquake. He said, "Yes." He thought it was a crain hitting the side of the building he was working in, but it went on way too long for that. His co-worker laughingly said, "Earthquake," not realizing that it really way one!

Fabrica, Deruta

2011-08-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

Inside the fabrica of Ubaldo Grazie.

This is the oldest pottery continously owned and operated by one family,

since the 1500's, 25 generations!

Above is Ricardo, one of the six workers that I have met over the last two days. He is a nice young man whose specialty seems to be painting Italian landscapes on plates and platters. I learned today that Ricardo studied with 'the' maestro of maioliche painting, who works in Deruta.

I'd done a lot of ceramics in my younger years, when my daughter was young. I worked in a shop pouring the molds and learning about the firing and the glazes, and the hand painting, so this was like coming home for me. Yet not quite.

Here's the process:

Clay from the 'quarry'

The old processes have been modernized when possible, but there are pieces that are still thrown on the wheel.

A machine to wedge and extrude the clay.

Molds

Rooms and rooms of fired bisqueware

Dip the fired ware into the glazeing vat

Ricardo not happy says, "old bisquit" in reference that this piece I picked has been on the shelf a long time and not taking the glaze as he would like it to.

Sanding the glaze off of the foot of the piece so it won't stick to the kiln.

The designs are still transfered to the ware by use of 'pounce bags',
bags of powdered graphite.

The stamped design.

Now, it's ready to paint.

More tomorrow.

Driving in Italy

2011-08-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Here is the little Fiat Panda we are driving around in.

This car is great for driving in these villages where the streets are narrow with stone walls on either side. Of course it's a manual transmission, and I haven't driven one, maybe since 2006, when I was in France with Susie, Margie and Meg. And I have never driven in Italy.

It's been going pretty good on my end, because Susie is an excellent navigator. I bought a Michelin 'book map' of Italy before going since I knew I'd be driving around on my own, which so far, hasn't happened.

I did have a momentary panic in Todi, as we were leaving. Our Sri Lankan helper gave us a parking space on a small dead-end road. We had to drive downhill for only a few yards to pull off into that short deadend space, and the back of the Fiat was only a foot or two off the main road.

When we left, I had to back out of the space and uphill. New to driving this car, I put it into reverse, took off the emergency break, and drifted back and up hill as far as gravity took me. What I neglected to do was to ease up on the clutch, and engage the gears! When gravity tugged on the car it started to roll forward towards the corner of the stone building.

Inside I was saying, "Merde!" but cool on the outside. Still for a split second that was crucial, I didn't make the correct moves, and stalled the car out. I started it, and did the same thing, put it in reverse, but didn't ease up on the clutch to find the fulcrum point to get it moving backwards, and that stone wall was awfully close now.

Susie had been in this situation when she was driving last time, so she took hold of the hand break, let me get the gas and the clutch where they needed to be, and told me to give it gas and let her know when to release the break. It worked like a charm!

Whew! Crisis resolved.

On the open road, the Italians are interesting. They seem to have what I'll call 'white line fervour'! They whiz past you, and come over into your lane, as if their's wasn't wide enough, but of course it is. Your heart is now pounding cause you think that they have almost side-swiped you. They know what they're doing, but if you're new to this, and it can be a bit disconcerting.

Once past you, they straddle the white line. I am trying to figure this out. They might drive down the road for several minutes straddling that line, as if they are trying to decide which one to drive in.

The scooters are the worst. The drivers are fearless, and they squeeze into every nook and cranny possible, and often at very high speeds, and they seem to come out of nowhere.

I am navigating the round abouts really well, so well, that when I come to a traffic light, it is easy to miss it!

Tomorrow may be the day I drive without a navigator. Maybe I'll tackle a small village first, and I'll stay in the right lane as someone in America told me too. But Perugia and Assisi are where I really want to go, and Perugia is a big city.

Martin! I need help in Italy

2011-08-23T12:35:00.000-05:00

Hello folks, my tripod was acting funny before I left, and my Sherpa extraordinaire told me what to do, but I have tried it and it is not working. So, I am writing now to ask him how to fix it.

Deruta and the Fabrica

2011-08-23T07:22:00.000-05:00

Buongiorno!

Touching the hand of Christ in Todi!

Todi is one of the nicest villages in Umbria, so I have read, and my time there confirms that. That Rough Guide says it has the most beautiful piazza in Europe, Ubaldo Grazie said, "the world." Below is the church in Piazza Popolo. You might notice a banner hanging over the entrance to a small road to the right of the church. The San Lorenze Tres, our hotel, was down that little road, and then turn left onto a smaller ruelle. (But of course I am mixing French, Spanish and the very few words of Italian that I have learned since I left America last Thursday.) Suddenly, I can speak French! and Spanish.)

It is down this street that we found a wonderful exhibition on Raffaello, the Italian spelling.

The exhibition was the last thing we did before leaving Todi. The cost was 9 Euros to get in, and I bought a small catalog for 5 Euros. The exhibition had two short films, but we didn't watch either of them as we had only one hour to view the exhibition.

I was at first surprised that someone would put on an exhibition of reproductions of paintings, but that is what this was. Not reproduced on canvas, but on some sort of plexiglass panels or something of that nature.

I took this photo of the pizzeria in Todi. it was always packed, not just because it was very cheap, but also because it was quick and good. They sell pizza by the weight, and they cut it with those scissors that you see. We were thinking what a great idea to do this! Of course you see that the pizzas were prepared in advance. I had a slice of a yummy zucchini pizza with a perfect crust, a half bottle of an Umbrian rosso wine, and a salad. Voila, dinner with no fuss.

Art connoisseurs waiting to get into the Raffaello exhibition.

We decided 'what was not to like' even if the exhibition was on plastic instead of paint and wood. Suppose one could never get to Pisa, Firenze or any of the other palaces or musuems that house these paintings? This was an opportunity to at least see a body of his works in one place and get a sense of what he was about.

His draftmanship was absolutely stunning, and the opportunity to view these works with another artist is always valuable. We might each take away something different, but could share that and see the painting from another's persepctive.

One thing I noticed was that Rafael seemed to use the same face for women, or men, over and over in his paintings.

Here's the face as a woman.

Here it is as a man.

Both of these faces were in the same painting, but in crowd scenes.
However, this same face was also used as that of
St. Sebastian.

Italy: First Night Hotel

2011-08-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

Here is my bed at the hotel San Lorenzo Tre, in Todi, Umbria.
First night: http://www.sanlorenzo3.it/

The Rough Guide says this is the best bargain in town,
IF you don't mind lugging your suitcases up several flights of stairs.

Below is the first of the staircases.

Below is Susie's room.

She said I could have pick of the rooms and since I was going to be sleeping on her sofa in the next hotel for the remainder of the trip, I chose the big bed.

Both rooms were appointed with fine linens, interesting furniture and some nice art. I had etchings in my room, and she had some prints from England.

Below is my little sitting area where you can see the etchings lined up on the ledge.

Next is one of the many views from the rooftop.

There were nice lounge chairs and a table

but it was scorchingly hot, so after taking photos of pigeons

we skedaddled out of there . . .

Just off the rooftop was a drying area, and a small room to the right. That area reminded me of some that I have seen in India, rooms for the workers, where there is very little but a hard place to sleep. I wondered if that was where Neel, the very nice man that met us and took our luggage up all those steps was living.

Neel, was originally from Sri Lanka, but has been living in Italy for many, many years.

Sadly, I forgot to get his photo.

He was helpful in so very many ways,

but the most important to me, was in finding turpentine,

or in Italian, tremetina.

Here are some views of the common areas of this hotel,

which is housed on the primo secondo of a townhouse.

Our wonderful breakfast!

Some Italian trees, so you'll believe that I am really here!

And the impoirtant stuff, the stuff that life is made of

Espresso!

My first one.

This cup was shaped like a funnel getting smaller as you drank it down.

Maybe just a tablespoon of high test,

but strong enough to keep me awake until at least

11:00 PM on jetlag.

And of course,

graffiti!!! Banksy, eat your heart out!

I might have mentioned in the last blog entry that I lost my sketchbook!

Yikes, the same kind I lost in India, the coveted Molekin book: hardback black cover with pocket in the back. Well, I traced my what's left of my memory to where I last had it, the ferramente (the hardware store), where I got the tremintina. It's been on an adventure since Saturday afternoon in Todi, but it was retrieved today after a day at the fabrica.

I realize I am way behind on blogging, but this is a huge responsibility. How can I possibly keep up when there is painting to do, and swimming - to keep up with the fitness plan, which also includes endless flights of steps at every turn.

Painting is hard to fit in, let alone blogging!

Next time, Derute, painting, the fabrica, and driving.

Caio!

Italy: Sunny and Hot

2011-08-20T15:29:00.000-05:00

Hello from sunny Italy. Land of olive trees, great art, and of course fabulous wine, great clothes, gelato, and much more.

My traveling companion, Susie, on Monday is going to start working in the oldest pottery in Italy, over 500 years in business, Ubaldo Grazia Maioliche. This is her fifth time coming to work at this pottery over the past year. She is designing a line of pottery that is for sale in Coumbus, OH at Caterina's, in the German Village.

Katherine, the owner of Caterina's, is the wife of X-Mayor Greg Lushutka (not sure of that spelling), and has been in business for about 5 years. She sells marvelous luxuries from France and Italy. At her suggestion, she and Susie came to Italy last year, and Susie spent 6 weeks learning from the experts the process of making, transferring and painting her designs, in this historic pottery.

We stopped at the 'fabrica' today to see if Ubaldo was there. But he was away. It is still the vacation time for the locals, and Susie expects that he is on vacation. Both of them will be back at work on Monday.

Susie has learned how hard it is to control the ratio of pigment to water that will giver her the finsihed look that she wants. It was fun to see her pieces all lined up on one of the work tables, waiting for her.

I have taken many photos since our arrival at 10am yesterday, but I am not sure if I can download the photos directly from my camera into this blog. If not, I may have to go to Plan B. And since this afternoon, my blog wouldn't let me get into it to start with, I am not willing to try at this moment.

After all, I have been drinking several glass of Soave wine. I saw it on the shelft in the grocery this afternoon, and took it as a sign, as today is my dear departed Father's birthday, and this wine was one he learned to love on my parents trip to Italy in 1973!

Until then, I will say that we painted one painting yesterday, in the private garden of the man that was running the beautiful hotel that we staying in in Todi, south of here.

Caio!

7-weeks Plein Air Class, Columbus, OH

2011-08-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

My first painting at the 2011 5th Annual Door County Plein Air Festival
"Quiet Morning, Ephraim" 8 x 10", Oil on Ray Mar Panel
Now in a Private Collection on The Door
Copywrite 2011, Debra Joyce Dawson

The weekly class, sponsored by the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, OH, is a first for me. Class starts on September 12 and goes through October 31.

Registration and Supply Lists:
Cultural Arts Center (CAC)
139 West Main Street, Columbus, OH 43215

Registration begins: Aug 13th

Need help registering?Geoff, at 614-645-7527, can help you get an account and get registered.

More info on the CAC website, and also at www.debrajoycedawson.com

OAC Riffe Gallery OPAS Exhibition Video & Italy!

2011-08-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

Below is a link to an ArtZine video. It features Jane Black, speaking about the Ohio Plein Air Society Exhibition which she curated.

You'll see some of the artist's works, but sadly, not all of them. They did put one of my paintings in the video, it's a painting of a Maillot sculpture in the Columbus Museum of Art's Russell Page Garden. Size is 6 x 6", Oil on Gessoboard. It sold at the opening.

Interestingly enough, when I was painting in the garden that day, one of the caretakers told me that squirrels were eating away on that sculpture. You could see their little teeth marks in the metal! That surprised me as much as my host family telling me that a porcupine gnaws away at the treated lumber of their steps to get the salt out of the wood.

http://beta.wosu.org/artzine/natural-light-paintings-by-the-ohio-plein-air-society/

Also, I wanted to let you know that I am traveling to Italy tomorrow. My traveling companion is Susie Astleford, a great artist working in watersoluable oils. Susie is going to be working, again, at one of the potteries in Deruta, south of Perugia, so most of the time will be spend in the region of Umbria. We are half an hour from Assisi, and I plan on returning to see the Giotto murals that I saw in 1985, the last time I was in Italy!

I am going to try and blog from Italy, but you know, I will also be painting, so we can only hope. Arrevederci - the extent of my Italian.

Door County: "Where the Wild Things Go"

2011-08-15T20:35:00.000-05:00

"Where the Wild Things Go", 12" x 12", Oil
Copyright 2011, Debra Joyce Dawson
SOLD and living in Wisconsin

The first part of this story appears in my July 20, 2011 post, and shows the 6" x 6" painting that I did before the competition began. That small painting was completed in early afternoon. Here's the link to that post showing the start and finish of the small painting.

For "Where the Wild Things Go", I revisited this quiet spot on ZZ, just east of Sumac Lane. If you make the right turn to go north on ZZ you have gone too far. It was really nothing more than a place to pull off.

I was looking north to paint both pictures, and painted this second one in the morning. Looking to the left of where I stood, there was a distant farm sitting at the edge of a meadow animated with wild flowers; turning a little to the right, there were more pine trees.

As Cezanne said, " . . . make a quarter turn and there is another painting." But I decided to paint the exact same viewpoint, and in the morning, there were nice shadows falling across the road on that sunny Thursday morning.

I could just as easily have named the painting "Thursday Morning", but one always hopes for a more poetic title. Still "Tuesday Afternoon" was good enough for the Moody Blues.

When the time came to sit down and fill in my paperwork for the exhibition, I thought back to another painting I did during the inaugural Door County Plein Air Festival. I called it "Walk on the Walk Side", the title inspired by a song you might remember by Lou Reed.

Reed once said about the song: "I always thought it would be fun to introduce people to characters they maybe hadn't met before, or hadn't wanted to meet." I'd like to think my paintings could introduce viewers to things they pass, but don't see.

Armed with the memory of the first painting and it's title, I pondered what I could do with the word 'wild'. Wild Thing (another great song), but not the right mood for the painting. Wild place? Yes it was a wild place - even if man had trampled it a bit. After all, hadn't someone, or thing, created that path leading into the wild where I never walked. So, "Where the Wild Things Go", giving a nod to Maurice Sendak, was a logical progression.

Maurice Sendak; photograph from the Rosenbach Museum
and Library, Philadelphia From “Where the Wild Things Are” (1963)

Here's a link to an article written in 2008 where Mr. Sendak consider's how history will remember his work.

I wasn't wild enough that day to walk down that road, but the title might lead a viewer, traveling down that path in the painting, to get in touch with some wild place or memory within themselves.

This wild place held a certain magic for me and my eyes.
Anything wild could have been lurking in there,
watching me while I painted.
It really is all about
me and my imagination!
And you and yours.

Plein Air Painters Skin Cancer Awareness!

2011-08-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

http://www.captaincutaneum.com/index.php

The link above was posted on Facebook by an artist the I met while painting in the Publisher's Invitational "Paint the Adirondacks" event in June of this year.

It's a site about skin cancer, and every plein air artist needs to know this information.

Figure Workshop

2011-08-15T02:14:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am again, late night blogging. No wonder I can't seem to get the spelling, punctuation and grammar correct. I apologize for that, as I have a great respect for language and it's proper usage. I do appreciate your patience with me.

Tonight I thought I would post a bunch of photos from Tuesday's one-day figure workshop. The above photo is my class, all staring at one of the three wonderful models that I brought with me.

The workshop was held at the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery, in Columbus, OH. The Director or the gallery, Mary Gray, is a really nice woman with a fabulous voice and magnificent organizational skills. She set up the room with the drop clothes, tables, chairs and really paid attention to details that made my students and me feel comfortable in this very visible space.

We had all three models working in quick poses as we warmed up with some contour drawing, to learn about hand/eye coordination and to start thinking about the importance of collecting information. I have no photos of this as I was drawing at first to demonstrate what I wanted them to do, and then checking their drawings to make sure they understood the idea. Some of the students hadn't done contour before, and they wanted to make the one minute drawings what they wanted them to be, but not what I intended. Contour - outline - not form, or light and shade. Not a finished drawing, just contour, to improve their observation skills while gathering as much of the information that is present, in as careful a drawing as they could make in one minute.

Next we mixed values of grey, and I did a short demo. Our model was my 17 year old grandson, Tyler, wearing white Bermuda shorts with a black plaid, a black T-shirt, a tan colored Irish cap, and a caramel colored cane. (I wasn't going to hire him, but when he showed me this outfit, I gave him the job.) He wowed the class in the quick contour poses with his poise and attitude. He is a born model. Or maybe it's just that I have worked with him for many years. Still, whatever he's got, works. And, we were all too busy at this point to think about photos.

Tyler chose to pose on one knee holding the cane out in front of him, in a profile pose. I didn't stop to think about his poor knee on bare wood, and neither did he. Nearing the end of my 10 minute demo, he was shaking, and one of the students asked me to take pity on him. My response was, "Well, he picked the pose." Judy said, "Wow! you are really hard on your models!" We all got a good laugh out of that, including Tyler, and I released him from his misery.

Our next model was Gina, Tyler's Mom.

Just 10 - 15 minute studies simplifying the model into a shadow mass and a light mass was all I asked for. For students who had been meticulously studying models at Columbus College of Art and Design, with weeks on one painting, this 10 minute quick painting was mind boggling. One of the CCAD students said to me that his teacher there would be "turning over in his grave at this approach." For students who came to paint form, this exercise confused them, and it seemed to be a challenge at first to switch to a new way of seeing and thinking.

I found myself saying more than once that "you are thinking too hard." Just squint and separate everything in shadow into one mass of one value, and don't touch it again. Mass the shadows and darks first. Then do the same with the light side. A third value could be used for the background if they wanted to do some negative painting and carve out some contours if they weren't quite correct to start, but they were definitely not to cross the shadow side into the light side or vice versa.

And of course to keep those values separated, you have to wipe and wash your brush frequently, or you create unintended values. Below are two paintings by the same student. Anne is a very experienced artist who hadn't painted in oils for years and years. (She is a very fine printmaker who studied with Sid Chafetz, a legend at OSU, and now professor emeritus in his 90's - and still working.) Anne struggled with just two values. She regularly put in extra values to create form, and I struggled to get to her before she crossed her values. When I did, her paintings were so charming that we talked about the concept, but I waited for several paintings before I actually asked her if I could paint one of her paintings.

Tyler on one knee at the right, and his Mom on the left.

Below, you can see the result of Chris' painting of the model with a shadow mass in black and a light mass in a lighter value of grey. Using just two values, it already feels like light. Once I felt the students understood the concept of separating the dark and light masses, we talked about edges which made the simple values start to feel like form.

Above Chris's painting of Gina. She has a good separation of light and dark masses,

but also couldn't resist adding extra values and turning the study into a more finished painting.

Above you see another painting value painting of Gina, by Anne. By now, Anne, has mastered the concept of a dark shadow mass and a light mass. But she expanded her value range to create a background space. In this photo, she is now working on translating that black and white painting into a color painting. Students chose two colors of their choice - sometimes colors right out of the tube - in the correct value range and transitioned into color.

And then came Tyler. And that's me beside him pointing out values,

and how to compare this to that, and that to this. (P.S. I learned this from Neil Riley at CCAD.)

James is painting in the foreground.

Tyler posed in his Johnstown High School marching band uniform. His idea!

I couldn't have planned this any better if I'd tried. This was a fairly simple transition into an expanded local color and value painting. Just black, white and red and some mixing for flesh tones. Relatively easy, and a great transition from the black and white work. The problem was, people forgot to squint, and now they had to deal with the local values of black in light and white in shade.

Daina painting Tyler. This painting went through several transitions of values,

but I don't have another photo of it.

I suggested that they could stick with pure black for the darkest darks, the correct value of premixed grey that they already had, the Quinacridone rose right out of the tube for the red in shadow, and pure white for the lightest whites. In the second pass, they could adjust the black where the light hit it. It looked to be a touch of Cad Lemon added to the black, to make a greenish grey for the chest area and a cooler and bluer grey down the leg of the pants in light. Most folks used the suggestion to use one of the greys they already had, but most went a little lighter than was needed to make that white in light sing out.

The worst mistake was, most of them forgot to mass their shadows and darks first! They went for the middle values first, the hardest values to judge, and they had nothing to judge them against.

Ben's placement of the figure, with Judy behind who is massing her darks first.

Ben's painting with the darks massed in and using the correct value of grey to represent the white in shadow.

Sherry, a nurse, stuck with the first stafe and got a strong separation of dark and light masses.

Rog had a charming painting going, but his grey value needs to be darker.

Anne's values in the shadow whites are confused. She was thinking, not observing.

Still her painting is compelling and you see she has added that greenish grey in the correct value to represent the light side of the black on the chest and cooler bluer grey down the leg of the pants. It was really there. Ann has also added a very sensitive background that transitions from a color lighter value grey to a greener grey on the right side of the figure. This is great painting folks.

I cropped this photo of Chris to show her painting of Tyler and to show that huge glob of grey paint on her palette. Students don't mix enough paint, but Chris came through and wasn't afraid to go for it! After all, you can't paint without paint. Can you?

When I got to Chris, she was already starting to do what she always did,

push both ends of the value scale towards the middle.

She needed to push the darks back down in value, and I showed her how easy it was to express the light on the red by using straight Cad Red Light - because it was the correct value! The quality of strong light and shadow came back.

This is Carmen's painting of Tyler in progress. She also needed to push her dark values, but of all the paintings of Tyler, hers was the one that "felt" most like Tyler. She captured the sense of his body under the clothes and had the correct proportions. And Carmen has a sensitive touch.

Tyler had to leave early to go to work, so the painting session wasn't as long as the students would have liked. I gave them a "10 minutes more", and then came Layla. You see her peeking out behind Ben's drawing of her on a 20" x 16" panel. Ben does a lot of drawing in charcoal, but he'd never painted in oils. I had a hard time believing that, cause he sure came on strong, and it was lovely to see. Later on in this painting I walked by and said, "the value of the skin in shadow isn't correct." He said, a bit frustrated, "I know, I am trying."

This was a beautiful set up of complimentary colors with beautiful neutrals in the skin tones. The students had only 45 minutes to capture it!

Rog, a very fine hair stylist and owner of his own salon, massed in one dark and then went for the flesh. He also had some delicate green marks that aren't really visible in this photo. I could see by his color palette that this would have to be a very high key painting if he continued it without massing in the strong deep shadows that were actually there. We talked about that, and I said it was fine if he wanted this to be a high key painting. I wish he'd had more time as I would like to have seen where he would have taken this. The drawing was not quite correct, and at the end, I placed just a few guideline marks on the painting in what would be the darkest value, around a value five. Honestly his colors were so clean, beautiful and delicate, that it didn't matter if the drawing wasn't spot on. He was creating an equisite statement in color.

Christ at the start of her painting. We corrected the drawing a little and I told her to mass in the darkest dark first, and stay out of it!

Judy, had done absolutely gorgeous paintings all day. I heard later that she ran out of panels and wiped off her painting of Tyler, much to Gina's chagrin. I didn't realize that she had used up her greys toning this panel, but the paint was more than a tone, and she was struggling with color and value as everything she put on mixed with the grey paint already on the canvas. Too bad, I think she would have gotten a great painting otherwise. And she admitted to me that she was getting tired.

Judy is a fine artist who works in drawing, painting and sculpture of the human form!

Helen's painting in the front and Carmen's in the back.

They painted carefully and both had good starts in simplifying and painting in large masses. In the end, they had too much time on their hands and the paintings turned from statements of light on form to statements about things. I did quite a bit of finger painting, simplifying the masses on Helen's, and she could see what I meant. We were out of time, so I didn't get to help Carmen with hers, but I did give her a critique of her painting. Like Helen, the thinking brain wants to see the eyes, lips, and all the tiny folds in the dress which took her initial strong statement of shapes and color values and pushed everything toward the middle values for a weaker result.

I want to thank my wonderful models. We didn't have time to get to the great flirty skirts and tops that we picked out for Gina. And I commend my students. They painted non-stop for three hours straight in the morning with an hour lunch break, and then another 3 hours in the afternoon. My models told me that I talked almost the entire time!

Naural Light: Paintings by Ohio Plein Air Society

2011-07-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

"Looking West, Hollow Road", 6" x 8", Oil on Canvas

I am pleased to be exhibiting five paintings in this

curated exhibition alongside the works of

15 other artists/friends who are also members of OPAS.

This curated exhibition is at the prestigious

Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery (details below).

All paintings were completed in Ohio.

Surrounding this exhibition are a curator talk, two workshops
and a poetry reading. Info on these extra events are below.

"Looking West, Hollow Road", 6 x 6", Oil on Gessoboard

“Natural Light: Paintings by Ohio Plein Air Society”

Curated by Jane Black, Dayton Visual Arts Center
July 28 – October 16, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION
Thursday, July 28, 5:00 – 7:00 PM

CURATOR’S TOUR
Friday, July 29, Noon – 1:00 PM

Riffe Gallery
Downtown Columbus
Vern Riffe Center for Government & the Arts
77 South High Street, First Floor, Columbus, OH
Use the State St. entrance on Thursday evenings. Saturdays and Sundays.

Gallery Hours:
Tu – 10-4Wed, Fri – 10 – 5:30Thu – 10 – 8Sat. Sun. 12 – 4Closed Monday and State Holidays

Phone: 614-644-96241-800-750-0750

E-mail: riffegallery@oac.state.oh.us

MODEL PAINTING WORKSHOP with Debra Joyce Dawson
Tuesday, August 9, 9:00 am – 5:00 pmIn the Riffe Gallery
Register at www.riffegallery.org
$50.00. All materials included.
Between Monday, July 18 and Monday August 1.

FREE FAMILY WORKSHOP Sunday, September 18, 2:00 – 4:00 PM

With Joe Lombardo
www.riffegallery.org
Between Monday, July 18 and Monday August 1.

POETRY READING AT THE RIFFE Thursday, September 22, 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Four distinguished Columbus poets in the Riffe Gallery.
Free and open to the public. No reservation necessary.

Also check this link for further info: http://www.oac.state.oh.us/riffe/exhibitions/2011/NaturalLight/NaturalLight.asp

Door County on Facebook

2011-07-25T19:19:00.000-05:00

Me painting last Wednesday.
"Happy Day, II" - 9" x 12" - Oil on Panel

I found this photo of me on the Peninsula Art School's Facebook Page. It's posted under the heading for the Quick Paint, which took place on Saturday morning - two days ago. I was happy to see it for sure, but it wasn't my 2011 Quick Paint. I did this one late afternoon on Wednesday, in Fish Creek's Clark Park. Several artists had signed up to paint in Clark Park that day, but I wasn't one of them. Friends called to tell me they were painting there, so I met them. That day was the hottest day of the festival, and I had a cooler filled with cold water and diet 7-Up. I passed that around and made them all happy.

As I walked around checking out the other artists, I was excited and pleased to see my odl friend, Happy Day, a white boat with a turquoise interior. Five year's ago it was sitting in the water, this year it was shoved up out of the water and resting in some tall grass. I walked all around that area to see if I could get a good location to paint it. Finally I thought, I'd go to the spot where I'd seen it for the very first time, a small strip of concrete on the side of the marina. It gave me a side view of the boat, and the best view of it that I saw.

Much to my surprise, I had the pleasure of finding a very fine artist named Neil Sherman working on a painting with Happy Day in it. I'd not seen Neil since the 2007 Inaugural Door County Festival Quick Paint.

It was interesting to me that I found him there because, after five years, we were meeting in almost the exact same spot where I'd last seen him - near Malibu Moo's, behind the kayaks. We'd both found something that first year that we wanted to paint, but we'd have been in each other's line of site, and Neil was gracious enough to let me have that piece of real estate for the 2007 Quick Paint. It is a nice place to hide.

I wasn't trying to hide that time or this, but those kayaks offered some much needed shade. And of course, Happy Day just happened to look great from there!

Gala Preview Opening Tonight

2011-07-22T15:51:00.000-05:00

'Reserve Paintings Room'
40 artists x 4 paintings each on the wall.
But you can't imagine how many paintings are in this room,
waiting for a chance to come out of the box!

Well, it was a busy morning! But I have four paintings on the wall and four in reserve in the backroom pictured above.

We were invited to a wonderful dinner last night in Sister Bay. Several artists were there, enjoying the company of the wonderful people of Door County who open their homes to host an artist or two, sometimes three or four, if they have the room.

Mary Ann put out quite a spread. I was happy to see "Austin from Houston". She's a great lady from Texas who has come up to visit her sister during the festival.

After four days of painting, Frank Gardner was saying that we really could use another two days of painting. Strangely enough, the rest of the artists agreed. We are just in the swing of it, and let me tell you, there is a stunning show on the wall at the Peninsula Art School, just waiting for the public to receive the full force of what 40 artists produced in this beautiful county. I think they will be pleased to see their county, once again, through artists eyes.

He Ram from Door County

2011-07-22T08:37:00.000-05:00

Our painting flag and name badges on the beach in Ephraim.

Listening to He Ram He Ram sung by Anuradha Paudwal and chilling out!

There is time for one more painting this morning before turning in all the paintings for the festival by noon. But, I am framing and touching up paintings. It's been an intense four days for painting, made more intense by the heat factor. Record high heat in the high 80's and low 90's, and HUMIDITY!

We had a couple storms, but honestly, the weather has been great. It had the decency to rain only at night while we were sleeping. If you could get it, wind off the water was a great thing.

The front seat of my car.

Last night I was required to paint in the park in Egg Harbor. I had had it with boats, water, scenes, etc., etc., so I painted people. I was going to paint a yello jeep in front of a blue wall with orange day lillies in front, and started to set up, but suddenly said, "Stop, that jeep will move in the middle of your painting."

I asked several people whose attire I was excited by if they wanted it sit, but they alll turned me down, so I looked around for something that took my fancy. Finally! I red baseball cap in the sun! What a thrill. A couple were sitting listening to the concert in the park. They were sitting in blue and white striped canvas chairs. Sunlight and shade on grass, what could be better, with a sunset behind them. That was my subject.

The back of my Prius!

Of course, after the man finished his hotdog, and they found an opening, they moved. But I had the drawing down and had painted the hat and some other things to set the light and did the rest from memory.

Later they came by and saw the painting. They Lionel and Judy. I loved the names, and that is what I'll call the painting. Everyone loved the painting. I think it's a bit crude, but hey, not bad for them sitting there 15 minutes with people stopping and standing in front of them.

So now back to the framing and tweaking of the paintings.

Sunset, Door County

2011-07-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

Good Morning from Door County.

We got out canvases stamped on Sunday at 2PM.

I started painting here on Saturday. Below is the start and finish of the first painting I did at The Door.

It's not eligible to hang on the wall, since this isn't stamped. I started out small, just 6" x 6", since I hadn't painted in three days. I worked beside Mary Ann Davis, my roomie from 2009.

Just a place we glanced off the side of a road.

Under painting is in Transparent Red Oxide.

That has been my tone for a couple months now.

In the past I have used Cad Red Light or Quinacridone Rose to tone a panel, but for some reason, right now, I am using the Oxide Red. It's very similar to Burnt Sienna, but maybe more transparent.

Below is the finished painting.

And a photo of me with the painting and the scene.

This is day three of four days of painting. Everything has to be on the wall by Noon on Friday. We HAVE to have four paintings on the wall for the Gala Opening, and we were required to have at least one on the wall by Tuesday, 5PM.

Doesn't sound too hard, does it?

The heat has been tremendous and also the humidity.

Trying to stay hydrated and remember to eat!

I painted a cracker of a painting of an old boat the morning before we got stamped, but that painting also doesn't count for this festival. I will post it next time I post.

After we got stamped, I did TWO DOGS in a row.

Had to get it out of my system and calm down.

So on Monday, I started to paint more sanely.

Yikes, day three, got to go out and hit it all over again.

We have had two kicker storms here, and some rain, just to keep that humidity up, but you just grin and bear it, answer questions from the public, and first and foremost, you just keep painting, even if you think you just can't do another one.

Myself, I was feeling guilty after 8 hours of painting for not painting a night scene.

Several artists were on the streets of Fish Creek last night.

I should have been out there.

But it was a real pleaasure to watch Colin Page & Frank Garden.

Gotta got paint!

Oh, and one last thing, my new Prius was hit by an old guy who backed a boat trailer into it! And I lost one set of car keys! Yes, this is what can happen at a Plein Air Festival!

"The Door"

2011-07-16T23:50:00.000-05:00

My computer died suddenly when it ran out of battery power in Mojo Rosa's in Egg Harbor, Door County, Wisconsin. That was Friday afternoon, yesterday. Today is the first time I have had to get back to this blog since then.

I was writing to you from Mojo Rosa's Cantina and Pub
in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin.
I arrived on the Door Peninsula at around 10:30am, Wisconsin time.

I stopped to take a few photos to share with you.
Wisconsin, home to . . .

spotted cows.

And the New Glarius Brewery

(which is far from Door County, but their great brews

with wacky names like Fat Squirrel, Moon Man, and of course my fav, Spotted Cow

are sold all over Wisconsin.)

Magnificent cherries!

Sour Montmorency Cherries,

the kind I used to pick with my sister for Granny to

make into pies. In the Door,

they sell pies, dry cherries, cherry granola,

and they also make a cherry flavored beer.

Colorful flags! and I hope - not promise -
to get a better photo of a flag with the sunlight coming through it.
These flags were very welcoming to me the first year I was here, and are often used as 'signposts' for someones driveway into deep woods. How else would one know where to turn?

I had to stop and take this sign, just because!

I did some of stopping . . .

but, I didn't buy one of these, or any of the other garden things that were at this interesting 'antique' shop.

Instead I went for the bling!! Rhinestone bracelets, colorful and gaudy enough for India, in the shapes of a skull, cobras, lizards and one that is really quite pretty. Pretty or not, put them in great light and they glitter to all get out. Look out Barbie Barbell!

Here is where my computer battery died.
I spent the evening with Larry Rudolech and Mary Ann Davis, artists and friends, both from Indiana. We had a wonderful fish dinner, and some Spotted Cow! After dinner, we drove around and around the peninsula scouting painting sites and taking photos. We then went back to the Countryside Cottages, where we were all staying. I posted the photo of my bed - an unfolding chair - really a thick foam piece that folded out to sleep on. Thank heavens I am trained in sleeping in horrible places. Some of you might remember the bed at the airport hotel in Mumbai, India that I wrote about in my Indian journal. In monsoon season, the mattress and the pillows were all soggy from the damp, made this foam rubber seem like a king's bed. So no complaints from me on last night's bed.

I completed two paintings today. The photos need to be downloaded, hopefully tomorrow, but the event starts in earnest tomorrow, when we get our panels stamped at 1pm.

Larry had problems with his brakes today, and had to rent a car. Mary Ann lost her glasses, but . . . they were found in my car. Me, so far, I am doing well, and having a great time.
Met Mark Hanson in the coffee shop in Fish Creek this morning and had a nice time chatting with him. Later we talked to Kami Polzin, and then ran into two artists that Martin and I met in the Adirondacks. So 'the gang' is gathering, and I hope to just have a ton of fun this week.

The moon tonight was stunning. I'd just put my easel away when it started to rise over the lake. It was large and red, like a sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately there was a cloud cover so you could see a piece of it. Later driving back to my very nice cottage, it was in full view high in the sky and lighting up some clouds. Just gorgeous. I was sorry I hadn't stayed to paint it from the spot where I saw it rise, but it was getting late, and it is pitch dark here. My phone GPS doesn't work here, and finding your way around in the dark takes all your attention you can give it.

IMG00054-20110715-1611.jpg

2011-07-15T16:16:00.001-05:00

My bed 4 2night! Yikes

On the Way to Door County

2011-07-15T07:35:00.000-05:00

Good Morning, no photo this time since I am using the hotel computer. I was too tired last night to power mine up and download a few photos that I took on my drive from Pataskala, Ohio to Racine, Wisconsin.

I listened to National Public Radio the entire way. It was an interesting trip, and I sure can understand why a certain faction of the American Public would want to take away funding from this venue! Just imagine exposing me, or worse yet, YOU - I know that you are delicate - to interviews like the one I heard with a software developer who is working on a contact lens with electronic sensors in it that allows you to look at something and send info to your I-Phone from that contact lens! WOW! 'Dr. Who' kind of stuff! The developers think, as well as helping us, that this contact lens will become useful for Law Enforcement when they stop someone and need some immediate identification of the person they have at hand.

Then there was the story of a man who is OLD - how old, I don't know - but American Treasure age, and a pioneer sound guy. I was pumping gas, so I didn't hear his name either. He has worked on high-end productions for with Presidents, space projects, movies, TV, radio, things that we have heard of and never think about. His story started with him talking about his deceased granddaughter. He had taken "sound bites" from recordings he made from the second she was born - her first cry - and continued to record her voice and conversations with her from ages 'first cry to age 14' - when she passed away. It was never said how she died, and I am still wondering about that. But he liken this project to a a photo montage, only with sound. He always had a microphone suspended over her crib to record sounds as she woke up! They played the entire thing and it was marvelous.

Along the way I passed signs saying:

STAY OUT OF HELL!

REPENT

Jesus is the way.

and

HELL IS REAL!

Come to Jesus.

Then I came to the most marvelous of sites, a wind farm! I've seen wind turbines before, but never this many, and they were gently turning in the breeze of a wonderful day. It's a wonder I didn't kill myself trying to see watch them, and still stay in my lane with traffic whizzing by at 80 mph.

Well, I would write more, but an elderly lady with coffee in one hand and a plate of toast on it in the other, just came to ask how long I would be here. She looks dangerous, so I told her I'd be here no longer than 15 minutes. I said she could come and kick me if I was, but I am reminded of how long I waited in Cancun trying to get one of the six computers away from the six teenagers that were playing games and Facebooking their friends.

So, I bid you farewell for now, and continue my drive to Fish Creek, Wisconsin his morning. I hope to get in a painting or two today, and meet up with Mary Ann Davis, my old roommate from 2009. I am sleeping on a fold down, or reclining chair in her room tonight. Will make the Super 8 look good, I expect. The things we do for art.

Monoprints

2011-05-25T14:32:00.000-05:00

"Nest #3"

Two Saturdays ago I spent time in the print shop making some monoprints. I don't consider myself to be proficient at monoprinting since I've not spent a lot of time in this printing genre. Still, I figured it was blog worthy stuff, since I finally got two monoprints which I really liked.

First time I did the monoprint thing, was in a workshop in Reno, Nevada. Martin was working in Nevada for two months, and I had all day to do what I wanted. The Nevada State Museum offered a one day workshop with paper and ink included, with a nationally known teacher from a top notch school in California, and since I loved printmaking, I decided to take the one day workshop for $60.00, in September 1990. I used my cross country drive as my reference material, but I can't say I made great prints.

The second time I tried monoprinting it was in Columbus, OH with my great friend, Edie Dean. I brought NO reference material, and did large sheets of women's heads and shoulders, was disappointed in the results. In contrast, I was totally impressed by Edie's marvelous abstract landscape prints created so effortlessly. My experience was, with intaglio (etching) and reductive (linoleum and woodcut prints) processes, and I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around how to think about monoprinting.

This time, I knew I needed to bring reference material. I picked out four 17" x 11" sketchbooks from the 90's. In the studio I went through the books and picked out possible drawings that I thought would make some good monoprints. It WAS a nice trip down memory lane, and I had it narrowed down to two or three images to work from.

Once I had gathered all my supplies: ink, rollers, paper, and the large plexiglass plate, I made the decision to revisit a theme that I had explored rather extensively in 1996 & 1997: a series of birds nests.

At that time I worked from several robins nests. The birds had been building nests on my front porch light and also on a beam under my deck. The deck beam turned out to be an awful location as squirrels or raccoons got to the nests and ate the eggs before they could hatch. At that point the robins abandoned the nest, and I collected it.

These nests turned into many drawings, which led to a semester full of etchings, drypoints and a couple of mezzotints. I always intended to paint the nests in oils, but so far, there has been no painting. I should really begin this post with some of those older prints, but . . . I'd need to take the photos.

Instead, below is the first monoprint I got two Saturdays ago.
It's not what I expected, but I had something to work with.

"Monoprint Nest #1"
Black ink on White Rives BFK Paper

Here's the second print. I got some advice from a very fine printer, Sophie Knee.
Left the original image on the plate and did some test of rolling on transparent inks.

"Monoprint Nest #2"

Colors were mixed from Thalo Blue and a cool red, maybe alizarin?
I didn't look at the color name on the can.

Posting Nest #3 again so you can see the progression.

And here's what happened when I pushed it further.

"Monoprint Nest #4"

All of the prints were created one on top of the ghost of the previously run image, except of course for the first. I would like to have had more time to work that afternoon, because I felt I was just beginning to get the process in my brain.

Van Gogh on the Move, again . . .

2011-05-03T14:06:00.000-05:00

My cat, Van Gogh, is traveling almost as much as me.
Where is he going now?

"The Sight of Fish" 8" x 8", Oil on Canvas

"Small Works Show" Bennington Center for the Arts
Bennington, Vermont

Exhibition dates: May 28 - December 18, 2011
Opening weekend: June 11 & 12

All works in this show will be posted online at the above link!

May Day Paintout

2011-04-29T12:03:00.000-05:00

"KICK-OFF PAINTOUT"
OPAS 10th Year Anniversary Exhibition
Location: Short North, Columbus, OH
Sunday, May 1, 2011 - 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

In 2012, Ohio Plein Air Society is celebrating it's 10th Year Anniversary

with a juried members exhibition at Ohio's Springfield Museum of Art.

In preparation for this exhibition, members will be painting for a year
at pre-determined locations around the great state of Ohio.

Sunday, May 1, 2011, is the kick-off paintout, and
I will be painting at the Short North location.
If you are in the area, I would love to talk with you.

Click on the link below for more information on the
OPAS 10th Year Anniversary Exhibition.

http://www.ohiopleinairsociety.com/Exhibitions/Springfield/12_10thYear.htm

Snow Queen where have you been?

2011-03-30T16:06:00.000-05:00

"Paradox Lake" 6" x 5"
Oil on Museum Board

I've been away in Maryland, working on cleaning out my Mom's house, now MY HOUSE, with my sisters. If any of you have been through this, you know it can be a nightmare! But my reward was selling a painting through my website to a total stranger! I met him and his delightful wife at their home, took a tour of their art collection which included some wonderful Japanese woodcuts, and the artwork of a friend, Mary Spires.

I asked how he'd found my site. "How do I find anything on the Internet?" was his reply. He had no idea. I have to say I was a bit disappointed by that, but hey, the check was written, I said goodbye to the sweet little painting, and smiled all the way back to my house. In fact I smiled for a few days. I am still smiling when I think of that fabulous little gem.

It was painted on location in the Adirondacks. I was fortunate enough to be invited to stay with my friend Edie in her brother's cabin on Schroon Lake. After a day of heavy rain, on which Ed took us on a tour of potential painting sites, the weather cleared and Edie and I did a 9 painting marathon. The plan was to paint a value study followed by a color study. Paradox Lake was the first painting site. Below is the value study for the color painting which I sold.

My goal was to use a loaded brush and make each stoke count.
I was happy with the results of both of these small studies.

Happy Holi !

2011-03-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

I've just spent some moments celebrating Happy Holi via YouTube and at this link:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/holi_the_festival_of_colors.html

And what about that moon last night? Yahoooo!

Lately I've been in Maryland more than Ohio, working on my Mom's house with my sisters. Actually it's our house now, full equipped with 50 years or more of history and stuff.

Happy Holi!

Eisele Gallery Award & Rejection

2011-01-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

Surprise! I just found this tucked in the back of my winning painting.

Back in October I blogged from Nashville, TN that a painting of my cat, Van Gogh, had been accepted into the Viewpoint 2010 exhibition. Viewpoint is a national juried exhibition sponsored each year by the Cincinnati Art Club. While I was in Cuba, this exhibition opened, and I later learned that I'd won the Eisele Gallery Award!

The award is a year's representation at this fine art gallery that features not only the works of contemporary artists from Ohio, but also historic paintings by some of Ohio's past masters.

Yesterday afternoon my thrill was to drop off work that will hang among these past masters. Tonight, I got a small thrill when I found this medal, sort of like I had just received the award in person.

But what happens to us emotionally when we don't get in to a show? Or when we don't get that coveted opportunity that we had hoped for? Recently I found some words of wisdom on this very thing while reading Robert Henri's 'The Art Spirit'. It is really great advice.

"DON'T worry about the rejections. Everybody that's good has gone through it. Don't let it matter if your works are not "accepted" at once. The better or more personal you are the less likely they are of acceptance. Just remember that the object of painting pictures is not simply to get them in exhibitions. It is all very fine to have your pictures hung, but you are painting for yourself, not for the jury. I had many years of rejections.

Do some great work, Son! Don't try to paint good landscapes. Try to paint canvases that will show how interesting landscape looks to you -- your pleasure in the thing. Wit.

There are lots of people who can make sweet colors, nice tones, nice shapes of landscape, all done in nice broad and intelligent-looking brushwork.

Courbet showed in every work what a man he was, what a head and heart he had.

Every student should put down in some form or other his findings. All any man can hope to do is to add his fragment to the whole. No man can be final, but he can record his progress, and whatever he records is so much done in the thrashing out of the whole thing. What he leaves is so much for others to use as stones to step on or stones to avoid.

The student is not an isolated force. He belongs to a great brotherhood, bears great kinship to his kind. He takes and he gives. He benefits by taking and he benefits by giving."

Daily 90 3 & 4 - My Way!

2011-01-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here's the math:

January 20
15 paintings behind - 2 paintings +

1 day of not painting

+ 1 afternoon of life drawing

- one new snow painting

- 1 painting from a live model
= 11 paintings behind on January 24
- haven't painted yet today
= possible 12 paintings behind tonight, January 25.

Whew! I am going to do this daily painting thing My Way.

Any art I do counts, it just might not be a painting, it could be a drawing or a print. BUT, if I can come up with 90 new paintings in less than 90 days, that would be a marvelous thing indeed.

Below the colors I mixed for the start my second new snow painting.

They don't look very exciting do they?

My surface: a panel by SourceTek - Classens landscape linen.

Notice the little pin holes in the surface of the priming!
I only saw noticed that when I downloaded this photo.

I was surprised to see how intense that blue looked against

the transparent iron oxide underpainting.

I decided to apply the other colors I'd pre-mixed since this blue looked pretty good to me on my palette. It did have more chroma than I wanted for the finished color, but I knew that this was the first go round. Next, I mixed titanium white with a touch of lemon yellow and placed it in the snow area to test the value of the sky. These two values had to have the correct relationship.

Below is what I was looking at, a field in Pataskala, Ohio. Most likely it will be gone to development soon. I sat in the back parking lot of a drive through liquor store to paint.

"Flurries, January" - 6" x 8" - Oil on Linen

This painting is just as colorful as it is subtle. It's been a challenge for me to try and get this image to look like the painting. This was the closest I could get, but I feel so far from the real thing, and who knows what it looks like on your screens?

Below: what was left and scrapped together at the end of my painting session.

And some closeups of 'the battlefield' of my painting.

A few hours later, I drove to Westerville to a 3-hour model session. I took my oils and had high hopes. I had a really good painting going, but should have stopped sooner. Yes there are some drawing issues here, but what really bothered me was that I had the masses so much better and stronger about 35 minutes before I decided that I was ruining this with every brush stroke, yet there wasn't time left to try and bring it back.

When will one ever learn?

"Daniel" 10 x 8" Oil on Museum Board

Ohio Art League Drawing Session

2011-01-23T22:31:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon 1:00 - 4:00 PM - my first time at the open life drawing session sponsored by the Ohio Art League in Columbus, OH. $8.00 = 3 hours of time with a live model. I am out of practice, but I think some progress was made in the 3 hours of study. You can click on the images and enlarge them if you like.

Today's Tools
11 x 14" Strathmore 400 Series Drawing Pad

Bic Retractable Pencil

#4 Charcoal Pencil

Sienna Conte Crayon

Kneeded Eraser

60 second poses - Bic pencil

The model said she'd been doing a lot of Yoga lately,

and she took complex and interesting poses.

2 minute poses - still using the same pencil

2 minute poses continued & one 15 minute pose
Oooh, I am out of practice

40 minute pose? charcoal and conte crayon, eraser as drawing tool

30 minutes - charcoal on white Rives BFK
the prince of printmaking papers!

25 minutes, charcoal and conte, eraser

on Strathmore 400 series off white paper

What a pleasure to spend an afternoon with a wonderful model.

C'est tout!

Daily 90 1 & 2 - Snow Queen joins the challenge!

2011-01-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

Here she is - The Snow Queen!

She brought 6" of snow to my town today.

(In case you didn't know, it's me in disguise.)

The Queen noticed on Facebook that two of her painter friends had challenged each other to paint 90 daily paintings. I've never really been that interested in doing daily paintings, but when I saw Michelle Walker's painting, I invited myself into their challenge -
way back on January 5.

I was already 5 paintings behind at that point!
When I woke up this morning I was 15 paintings behind!
I woke up to falling snow, read an email from my friend Ray who was going out to paint snow in Cincinnati, and with 'the challenge' looming over my head like the sword of Damocles,
I decided to get in the game.

First, breakfast at The Nut.
Second, pay a bill in person, allowing me to do a little driving in the village and see what possibilities were out there. It worked. I found a spot easily, a field of corn stubble with a treeline, and the snow whiting out some of the background.

Here was my studio.

At the right you see my EasyL 12 x 16" easel, poised and itching to get into the game with a 5 x 7" gessoboard panel that has been toned with thinned down Transparent Red Oxide. The snow was falling steadily, and hard, making it impossible to paint outside without the umbrella I'd forgotten. The area behind the steering wheel was too tight to put the easel in front of me, so I sat it on the seat beside me and forced me to paint with my arm extended - just like I should!

I hadn't painted since December 5, 2010 when I did stand outside and paint - in the orchard 5 miles away from my home. Michelle painted that day, as did Jody Hall (the other artist that started the challenge January 1). Ray was there that day, and my friend Edie, and many other painters from Ohio Plein Air Society were sprinkled throughout Lynd's Fruit Farm which was sugared with a light dusting of snow.

Today, I felt a little nervous. You sure do get rusty if you don't paint for even a day, let alone for over a month. So I decided to start by doing my little drawing. Below, you see the two drawings I did for two paintings that I did today. I was parked for the first painting in a safe parking lot looking north across Rt. 16.
For the second painting, I crossed this busy road and
pulled into a farm pulloff heading into the field.

A policeman stopped by to see if I needed help.
I love it when that happens.
I took further notes to remember this day: here I was painting a great snow storm when suddently I realized that the music coming out of the radio was none other than Gershwin's Summertime! I LOVE that song and used to belt it out in my days as a torch singer.

Okay, I had my drawing. I was nervous. Stalling.
So I decided to mix some colors.
Ray wrote this morning that there were no values out there.
I wrote back saying there were close values,
and now I was faced with them.

I wiped the panel down so that it wasn't so wet.
And put in some guidelines.

I didn't realize that my shapes were a bit different in the mid-ground. I wish I had, but I was struggling with 'my stuff'. First the panel fell off the easel and into the Thalo Blue!
A good start, the colors were trying to get on the panel.
Next, the brushes were rolling into the paint.

And then, there was paint on the steering column.

Once I concured all of that,

I began laying in the colors that I'd pre-mixed.

I decided not to second guess myself.
My goal was to see if I could depict falling snow.

This was my palette at the end of the painting.

Eh, Voila!

"Snow Day, January"

#1 - Daily 90

Below is #2 catch up painting - Daily 90

Not what I'd hoped for. The idea was to see if I could depict falling snow with a big brush. The painting was better earlier on. I decided to rework this,
or scrape it and repaint from memory.
If I do, I'll repost it, but not sure I can call it another daily.
Michelle, would that be cheating?

My tools today.

This brush I don't recommend. I bought it years ago on sale,
not very good as the metal part of the brush is loose and wobbely.
And standing in the shadows,
my trusty Lowe-Cornell J-2 palette knife!

Just Another Morning in Cuba

2011-01-05T01:04:00.000-05:00

First of all, Happy New Year!
In this photo I am holding up my first cup of seriously strong and delicious Cuban coffee. I'm sitting at the breakfast table at
Nelson's Casa Particular in Habana Vieja.

Breakfast consisted of coffee - but not too many cups, pineapple juice, guava paste, rolls, sliced ham and cheese, and cold butter that was as hard as a rock!
Two women from Amsterdam shared the table that morning.

Below is the "lounge", the room that you step into from off the street. This house is pretty well appointed and decorated, the sign of someone that is running a successful B&B business.

Nelson had hooked us up with another casa owner around the corner. The owner was bringing a car, and a little waiting time was involved, so I decided to just peak my head out the door and see what was shaking in Old Havana.

Writing this, I am reminded of my first morning view of India in 2005 where a golden light was bathing the cricket fields of the Bombay Cricket Club, where I had trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that I was actually there in India. I had that same feeling of disbelief, maybe call it wonder, that I really was in Cuba.

In the photo above you are looking north.

Below, zoomed in, and you can see that there are some locals!

Below, around the corner to the west.

And to the east was this wonderfully painted pair of balconies.
Had we stayed longer, I'd have eventually painted these balconies.

Right across the street from Nelson's was this brand new paint job.

Below is what I was most interested in painting, complete with the usual Cuban dog. I did a little sketch in preparation for a painting, and walked over to show these gentlemen, Herman and Miguel. We shared a lot of smiles and laughs, and had as much conversation as we could for ones who don't speak much of the others language. No sooner did I go for my easel -

the car showed up. You can see Nelson himself standing in the door, and Miguel hoisting the first of my fellow traveller's suitcases. My case is already on the top of the Beetle and looking mighty fine with that lime green car. So Cuban! What was not so Cuban was that this was a brand new vehicle. Yet, another sign of a successful businessman.

Back to the Airport

2010-12-14T01:25:00.000-05:00

The next morning it was back to the airport.

Above, finally on the tarmac after several hours, a lot of red tape and pesos, and now waiting in line to board Cubana Airlines. Below, a photo of me with Miguel and his lovely wife. He looked severe, but he was the sweetest man, and as curious about me as I was about him and his wonderful hat. He also sported a neatly trimmed moustache that I liked a lot. He was a total package that I would liked to have had the opportunity to paint. I did draw him in the airport,
which was the real the ice breaker.
After that, we were friends.

Here's a shot of Cuba from the air. I loved the look of the fields,
and the color of the earth.

After landing, going through immigration and customs and money change, we walked out of the airport. An American man named Charlie and a driver were loading Charlie's luggage into the van he'd hired to take him to his casa in the Vedado area of Habana. We didn't know Charlie, but we quickly wound up in his van taxi and shared the fee. It was agreed that Charlie would get dropped off first and the 45 minute drive was spent getting Charlie's history with Cuba. He was spending three days in Habana, and by the end of the ride, we had agreed to meet him the next day to work out the details of a catching a ride in his rental car to the far side of the island. We dropped him, and headed for Habana Vieja, the oldest part of the city. It was raining, and we had no fixed destination since we had
no advance reservation.

Above is the street outside Nelson's Casa Particular. This casa was highly recommended in Lonely Planet with the only negative listed as small windows in the rooms. After much discussion and checking three or four other places in the dark, it was finally decided to take a room at this casa. The room was available for only this one night, so in the AM we would have to move to another casa. No big deal, I was tired and grateful for a nice place to hang my hat for the night.

But I found the best thing about this casa
in the bathroom. A Sorolla shower curtain!

It had been a long day, we'd had nothing to eat since breakfast,
the rain was bucketing down,
and I was in Cuba.

Mexico

2010-12-13T00:47:00.000-05:00

I'd never been to Mexico before, and never thought I'd set foot on Mexican soil without my traveling companion, but she'd been detained from the very start. As the plane made it's descent towards Cancun, all I could see were acres and acres of trees, jungle. Then all of a sudden, a housing development! It was a far cry from Cancun's expensive resort hotels and beach loving tourists. This view from the plane was the closest thing I got to the real Mexico. It fascinated me in it's simplicity. It was obviously inhabited by people that had very little, and I am sure that on one of these simple dirt courtyards I saw a bed frame with a mattress sitting outside. I was reminded of the palette bed in Orchha, India, that had been carried outside and placed near the source of the community's water pump. Each morning we'd drink our chai up on the roof of our hotel and look down as life's quiet drama unfolded before our very eyes. The first thing that the women did in the morning was to come to the watering hole and fill their pots with the days water. Here, looking down at Mexico, I saw no watering hole, just very straight roads and little hovels.

Once I'd gone through immigration and customs, I spent a long time with the travel agents at the airport. When they were finished with me, I walked outside. I had a five hour wait before the plane bearing my fellow artist would show up. I was a bit angry at her stupidity, but what could I do? There was no way to communicate with her, and we'd not booked a hotel in advance. All I felt I could do was to wait. I decided to sit at Starbucks of all places. I was hot and thirsty, so I ordered an iced green tea slushy thingy. The picture shows how much of this large drink I'd downed before it dawned on me, "STUPID GIRL!" I shouldn't be drinking anything with ice in it! I was kicking myself hard. I wrote it all down in my journal and figured if I was going to get sick, it would most likely happen way before the person I was waiting on would arrive. The good news, I never did get sick, so I suppose that either Cancun is safe to drink the water, or Starbucks used filtered water for their ice. Either way, I'd had more than a few minutes of worry. It just had not been a good day so far. Still, here I was in Mexico, with Spanish spoken all around me, and funny money in my pocket.

Travel frustrations

2010-11-03T08:35:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, November 2, were arose at 4:00 AM, had some tea and went off to the Columbus Airport. I had a backpack and one suitcase carrying all my painting equipment, and some clothes, and six rolls of Viva papertowels. My traveling companion, Nora, was carrying a small packlike purse, a childsized wheeling suitcase and two larger suitcases, one larger than the other. She couldn´t get them into the airport all at one go, so I am not sure how she planned on traveling with them.

The nice people at the airport desk helped check us in, and the airport was relativel quiet at that time of morning. My suitcase was 1.5 pounds overweight, but I wasn´t charged, but was warned I´d need to correct that for the return flight. I wheeled the case to the xray guy, told him I was an artist and in my case were tubes of artists oil colors in plastic boxes, and a tripod. He smiled, nodded and took the case.

Once Nora made her two trips to get her luggage to this xray guys, we headed off to security and coffee! Security was uneventful. Nora was through before me. Her shoes were back on, and as I was tying my last shoe, she said, "Îm just going to go around the corner to Starbucks and order the coffee. What do you want?" Just as I was finishing lacing my shoe I heard her name called over the intercom. I saw her reappear and as she passed me she stammered a bit nervously, "I'll, I'll be back." Her voice sounded like she was trying to reassure me, but had the nervous tone of uncertainty.

I went to get coffee and then to the gate. Within five minutes boarding procedure began. Once the priority passengers and those with kids got on board they called the first rows, and they also called my name saying they had a message for me, please come forward. The message was that Nora had been delayed and they would send her on a later flight that would arrive in Cancun around 3:00 PM. Sounded reasonable, but I was irritated that she tried to take solvent on a plane. She'd told me that she would take it in a rum bottle wrapped in bubble wrap. She´s learned that trick from Nelson Shanks, no less, who´d once carried it in a vodka bottle. Of course I had no idea if that was the problem, but it´s what I suspected.

I mentioned before that I don´t really know this woman that I'm traveling with, and as the day wore on, I began to realize I´d broken my own rule about not traveling with someone I didn't know well.

My plane reached Houston without a hitch. I made a call to Martin from a payphone with a credit card. I was very sorry I´d not brough my cell phone now, and since. Payphone's are definitely becoming one of the dinosaurs of communication.

After the call, I went to the Service Desk for Continental to try and find out what flight they had put Nora on. The woman behind the desk seemed friendly at first, but I quickly found out that she would be no help to me. First off, she was irritated that I couldn´t hear her voice. She was not going to speak up and the airport noise prevented me from hearing her. She sat with her hand out as I asked explained the situation to her, and asked if she could tell me what flight they had put Nora on, followed by saying, "Please tell me what it is that you want from me so I can hand it to you.¨" She wanted my ticket and passport, which I promptly handed to her. She checked me in for my international flight to Cancun, but she said she could give me no information on another passenger. I thanked her and left the desk.

I walked to the gate, bought a bottle of water and took a seat to record all of this, and more, in my journal. And I did a lot of thinking. I thought if I don´t connect with her, I will be on my own in Mexico, what will I do there. This was Plan B thinking, but I felt it was necessary since I didn´t know the cause of her delay, or what she might have in those cases. Maybe I´d not see her again.

Eventually I decided to get something to eat, since my flight was coming up and they don´t feed you on the plane. I also found a bookstore and bought a guidebook to Cancun and the Yucatan. I read a lot of it, starting with Cancun itself since we had no hotel booked. Then a bell went off in my head and I thought to go back to the Service Desk and ask again for the planes that were coming into Cancun from Houston. Of course I had no idea that she was flying through Houston any longer.

The desk was much more animated now. The woman who gave me no help was still there, but there were three new gals coming in to start work. The one sitting next to the unhelpful woman motioned me forward with a smile. She spoke up so I had no trouble hearing her. I said, "Do you want to see my ticket and passport?" She said no. I started to explain the problem. She asked my name, and for Nora´s name.

She was a fountain of information. "She has been rebooked. Oooooooooooooh! She is flying first class! Her flight number is ____, it leaves Houston at _____ and arrives in Cancun at 5:05." That was four hours after mine. "Is she really flying first class? I`ll kill her." This nice woman shook her head yes, looked at me with a smile and said, "We award bad behavior." We exchanged more smiles, I thanked her, and as I turned to walk away I wanted to say something to the unhelpful woman, but I didn´t. Certainly she´d heard the entire thing, and I had to wonder what she was thinking.

I went back to the gate and read the guide book, and wrote in the journal thinking that my journal would be full before I was finished with day one. The flight to Cancun was ontime and without incidence. I arrived at 12:05 (with the time change). I was surprised at all the forms I had to fill out before arrival in Mexico. The immigration agent took my passport and the form and never said a word, just went about making marks on the papers and making a lot of official noise stamping everyting before returning my passport with the visitor´s card.

I was surprised to see that my luggage would be xrayed again to enter Mexico. I was asked what I was carrying. After I explained I received a smile and an "OK." I was in, but now had to figure where to wait for Nora. To make a long story short, I got as much info as possible, changed some money for Mexican pesos and went to get a drink.

Nora did arrive around 6:00 PM and after checking into a hotel, we got ourselves together and I suggested that we go to El Centro. I asked the taxi driver if he knew a good restaurant in El Centro, he mentioned La Parilla. Three people had mentioned it to me, as well as the guidebook. She we went. They had a wonderful maricachi band, and we did lots of drawing and became the darlings of the restaurant.

We flight again today, and once I hit the "post button", I will be off the matrix for a while.

One final comment on my companion, her husband said she had ADD and I think he is right. I feel like I am traevling with an ADD child who has all the rights and priviledges of an adult, and she does. Whew!

Excuse any mistakes this is a keyborad with keys in places I am not used to finding them.