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.