Venice – Photos & Painting; Friday p.m. 7/18

After lunch in Murano and taking photos of the town, Craig and I left around 2:00 and headed back to Venice. He wanted to paint at a spot near our hotel that he found before breakfast. Since I had not been there and I did not bring any paints, I decided to tag along to take photos in that area while he painted. We went back to the hotel briefly so Craig could get his paints and so I could download the pictures I had taken in the morning onto my computer.

The light in my room was very nice when I got there so I took some photos of it. I called it the “padded room” because the walls were decorated with fabric with a small amount of padding behind. It had a ceiling decorated with paint, molding and a beautiful Venison-made glass chandler; it was like some that we saw in Murano. On either side of the bed was a small closet with painted doors. There were niches built into the closet where the lights to read and “end table” were placed, and it took away from the closet space. A flat screen TV was on the wall at the end of the bed. There was just enough space in the room to move around the bed and to get into the closets. The bathroom was small; it had an interesting corner shower with the two rounded glass sliding doors that served as wall and doors converging at the corner. The window had old and interesting shutters that looked out onto an alleyway. The window and shutters had original hardware and was the only part of the room that had not been replaced when it was remodeled. It was a compact but elegant honeymoon suite; the only thing missing was my husband!

Craig and I met outside the hotel and headed for his spot. When we got there, the light was great and the canal scene was ideal for painting. I took pictures while he painted, including a couple of him. I also found other interesting subjects like a gondola repair shop, a church, people, businesses and residential buildings that were nearby. After he finished painting, we went back to the hotel to clean up for dinner. We walking around awhile looking for a restaurant to eat and found a comfortable “Tavern” in the same area that Craig had painted. It’s hard to see in the photo, but the restaurant is at the base of the bridge on the right. It had really great food and we both enjoyed our dinner and sitting after a day full of walking.

After dinner we walked around a bit more to take more photos in the nice evening light then we called it a day.

Venice – Murano; Friday a.m., 7/18

I woke up Friday morning to the sounds of heavy rain. By the time I finished getting ready for the day, the rain had stopped. I walked over for breakfast at a sister hotel. The lobby we checked into is actually the sister hotel; breakfast is served in a room next to the front desk. That is Jen, Jeff and Dave eating breakfast.

After we finished breakfast we were to meet Jason at 10:00 in Piazza San Marco to get our museum pass. It covered many of the museums in Venice. When we went out to leave, it was raining. “Conveniently,” a peddler was selling umbrellas for 10 euros; some had bargained him down to five. Knowing that, I put 4.50 in my pocket. I went up to the guy and asked him to put up the umbrella so I could see that it worked and what it looked like. I asked him how much; I said it was too much, closed the wet umbrella, and gave it back to him. He had a fit because it was all wet; I took the 4.50 out of my pocket and showed it to him and he took it. That started my bargaining in Venice. There is a photo of Sam holding my umbrella; Jeff is making the sad face and Meredith (Jason’s babysitter) is standing next to him.

A group of us headed to P. San Marco taking pictures along the way, in spite of the pouring rain. Here’s a shot ofsome of our group “window” shopping. There was one interesting spot where I took a number of photos; I call this area “traffic jam in Venice” and I plan on doing a series of paintings based on this area. When we arrived in the big square were approached by many giving “free” passes for a taxi ride to the island of Murano to see a glass blower demonstration. I had read about them ahead of time in my travel guide; they offer a free ride over to Murano, show you the demonstration then take you up to the showroom to buy glass; and they don’t give you a ride home as they say they will. The book said they did a pretty hard sell after the demo. Regardless of he draw backs, we decided the free and fast taxi ride to the island was worth it; and it was out of the rain. I've included a photo of Judy, Thomas, Robert and Craig on our "taxi" ride and one of the demonstration. Afterward, our guide took us upstairs to the rooms with the most elaborate and expensive works of glass. Everything was phenomenal; chandeliers; all kinds of art glass; vases; wine, liquor and beverage glasses; pitchers, perfume bottles, plates… all amazing with the price to match. Down stairs the things were cheaper and less elaborate. The prices dropped as we went room to room. Knowing not to buy at the first place we went to, we left; and without any kind of hard sell. It was nice to miss the hard sell.

We visited a number of shops after we left and it was still raining. Here a shot of the harbor entering Murano and the town duomo (cathederal). Further down we found another shop that gave demos. The lighting was better here and he displayed what they made. There was no sales pitch here probably because as they were getting ready to close for afternoon siesta. At this point, we stopped for lunch. After lunch, Judy and Robert went on their own way and so did Craig and I; they went back to Venice, Craig and I stayed to take photos.

Venice – Arrival Thursday Afternoon 7/17

It’s been a busy week here after getting home from Venice. In our house of six, two of us brought home colds (including me) and two caught a stomach bug along with our major purchases. We also have a final large painting due next week so I’ve been slow in writing my trip updates.

After a morning reviewing our paintings with Craig, we left for Venice around 1:30. We made good time getting there with the “route” advice from our host Gabrielle. Including Jason’s family, there were 24 of us all together in three vans. It took us about four hours to get there including a restroom and snack stop. We parked the vans at a parking garage near a vaporetto (ferry) stop to Venice. Here’s a photo of Jason passing out our ferry tickets, one of us disembarking from the boat and part of the lobby of our hotel.

Once everyone got to their rooms, we were on our own for the rest of the evening. A group of us met in front of the hotel to check out Piazza San Marco (the main piazza in Venice) then find a place to eat dinner. We stopped a lot along the way to take pictures. The day was overcast, but I still got a couple good shots of the cannels. Once we got to the piazza and looked around, we decided to focus on getting something to eat.

After dinner, Craig said he “knew” how to get back to the hotel but we got lost. Getting lost is typical and expected in Venice, even with a map; most streets aren’t marked; only the major piazza’s and churches are. There are dead ends and navigating at night time made finding our hotel a challenge. After walking around for an hour, I decided this wasn’t working looked at my map to find the way. Once we got to a large piazza, we were able to find our way back. That was our first evening in Venice, long but enjoyable.

Going to Venice 7/17 - 7/20

We are leaving for Venice Thursday (7/17) after lunch for a van ride of about four to five hours. We will be there for three nights, returning home on Sunday. I probably won't make any updates of our trip until next week.

Caio, Caio!
Barbara

Painting Water – 7/15

For Jason’s class today, we focused on painting water in a small valley town called Umbertide. It was a twenty-minute drive from our home base. The topic today was composition and painting water. Jason started by showing us the stages of development of a painting he did the day before. In the photo, he is showing a couple preparatory drawings of his initial composition while gesturing toward the scene he painted. Sean, on the left, is holding the Jason’s final painting for comparison to his sketches. Next we started our own paintings. Here are Allison, Solla, Aprile and Amy (from right to left) painting the same scene as Jason. My painting was similar except that I did a vertical format instead of horizontal.

This was a very scenic location; the only disadvantage of this spot was that there was no shade. Fortunately, I had my umbrella, but most of the others were not so lucky. But the temperature was with us as the temperature was in the mid 80’s temperature in the morning.

Around 11:45, we broke for lunch and went into the town piazza of Umbertide. After lunch we met for a critique. I included Jason commenting on the paintings as well as some of the paintings the other students did. Mine is the third from the left.

Painting Clouds – 7/14

The weather report said there would be a 60% chance of rain on Monday and when we got up there were lots of clouds. It was one of those partly sunny, partly cloudy days so Jason decided to use this opportunity to show us how to paint clouds. It was a lovely morning where we set up to paint that day about five minutes from home. Here he is doing a painting demo with Corciano in the background. I also included a picture of Jeffrey painting Corciano and Robert painting under a tree out of the sun. Here’s my painting from the morning.

After lunch, I took a little walk down the road a ways and I found a nice spot of Corciano where some others had set up. I liked the cloud patterns and moved over and set up at this new spot. Just as I was blocking in (painting) the sky, the thunder started. I said to myself, nahhh, it’s not going to rain! Well that was wishful thinking. It clouded over real fast and next thing we know, it started raining. Here’s a picture of Jen trying to quickly put away her French easel. Notice my umbrella covering her block of water color paper. I also took a picture of Aprile folding up her easel. The pavement was just barely wet for the photo. When I finished packing up my stuff, the rain was coming down in buckets. It was too warm for hail but the drops were huge. Everyone got soaked to the bone by the time all the gear was packed and everyone got into the vans. Here’s the scene I was going to paint (minus the telephone pole and wires) when I got interrupted by the storm. It’s amazing how quickly the weather changed.



We headed for the monastery where several of the men are staying where Jason did a critique of everyone’s paintings from the morning. It was a warm rain so no one got cold from being wet. By the time we finished the critique, the sun was back out and many of us had dried off.

Cortona – 7/12

Craig was excited to go to Cortona, a hill town nearby, and show us the town. We parked at a church on a hill above the town and walked down into Cortona. The view was amazing and I stopped to take many pictures along the way.
I lagged behind and got separated from the group. I ended up in the town piazza. Fortunately, I found Jason and his family there eating their lunch. I eventually met up with the others in the shopping area around the piazza. After I ate lunch, I decided to go to a nearby park to sketch. It had a beautiful view overlooking the valley.

I sketched at the park for a couple hours. A man from Ireland complemented me on my drawing and we struck up a conversation. He was an cabinet maker and worked with architects to build things. We discussed how building and art were related. Then he teased that he didn’t want his daughters to see me drawing or my colored pencils because they would want to draw and not stop. Then Susanne, a cute little girl the age of five, came up and asked me to draw a bear. She said that wasn’t the kind a bear she meant, so I asked her to show me how she draws a bear. Next thing I know, she’s asking for other colors: blue, brown, orange, pink and green. Next her sister, Jessica comes over and wants to draw too; Jessica is Suzanne’s twin sister! So, I get her a piece of paper and a colored pencil and away she goes. Then I met their mom, three other older sisters and their uncle! We all had a great time watching Susanne and Jessica drawing together. I gave them little tips here and there. We got to talking about animals and I told them about the series of paintings I plan to do in the fall on “People with their pets.” Now they invite me to Ireland to paint the girls with their pets. They were such fun and the high light of my trip to Cortona. They were vacationing with family in Cortona for a week. I asked Jeff, a fellow student who was drawing nearby to take our picture together.

We all were to meet back at the main piazza at 5:30 for dinner. Several of us were waiting on the steps of a church when we’re asked to move because a wedding party was exiting the church and were going to throw rice. I decided to take pictures of it along with the photographer.
Later, Craig joined us and took a picture of everyone who went on the trip. We went to dinner at a nice but reasonably priced restaurant in town before heading home. It was an enjoyable day.

Hello Craig, Good-bye Carolyn - 7/11

Craig Nelson arrived in the evening of Thursday, 7/10. He and Carolyn are swapping for the rest of the semester: Craig will take over Carolyn’s class here in Italy and Carolyn will take over Craig’s class in San Francisco after she arrives home on Sunday. To commemorate this transition, we had a potluck on Friday night at our place at the villa. Here are a couple pictures. The first one is of Gabrielle and Dina (our Italy host couple) with Jason in the middle. Dina makes the best Tiramisu I have ever eaten! The second picture is of Sam, Robert, Shawn, Isaac (Jason’s son) and Jeff on our balcony.

I didn’t get any pictures of Craig, but I’ll take some next week when we’re out painting.

Montepulciano – 7/10

On our last painting day with Carolyn before she flew back to the states, we drove for about an hour to some location; I’m not sure where. The spot she hoped to paint turned out undesirable; so we headed back to one he has passed on the way. On our way to a new spot, Jason and Carolyn wanted to check out a small town. We drove in, liked it and decided to paint there. It was another of the small hill towns of Umbria; the town was called Montepulciano.

I started two paintings, one of a house with two windows and a lot of “wall character” and one of a view of the town. I only finished the painting of the city. I think this is my best painting so far this summer. I might do this one as my final project, a larger painting. The challenge is I took the photo in the morning, but painted it in the afternoon. I forgot to take a photo in afternoon light. Oh well…

After I finished my painting, I went into the town and took some pictures. Here’s one of my favorites of a sleeping kitty, dead-to-the-world. She really looked dead to me until I saw her move. I may turn her into a painting.

And here, by special request, are pictures of “walls”. Hey Lynne, there are for you! Let me know if these fit the bill or if there is something specific you’re looking for.