And the Winners Are..

Socks Roth, our official blog commenting chooser, has successfully chosen 4 names.  He pulled the names out of a bowl filled with the names of everyone who commented. If you commented multiple times, your name was put in the bowl each time you commented. 

The winners of an Anywhere Art Tote with art supplies inside are: 

Patricia Ladd, Dana Delman, Terrie Ellsworth and Myra Anderson!  

Congratuations and thanks to everyone who commented. Please continue to leave me comments, I really like hearing what you think. 

Beagle About to Choose Winner of Blog Commenting Drawing

In case you left a comment on my new blog in the hope of winning the prize of a tote bag filled with art supplies, the suspense is almost over.  The beagle is about to pick a winner out of the bowl I filled with names of the people each time they commented. The winner will be announced shortly after I wipe the beagle slobber off the card and read the name. 

Post Trip Painting Desk

I think one of the most important art supplies for painting is a desk. "You've got to have a desk." You might ask "Why do I need a desk?" You might even say, "I can paint at my kitchen table, on my lap or in bed, on a breakfast-in-bed tray".  There are a lot of problems with painting in those locations. If you have a desk where you can lay out all your supplies and leave them set up, it makes your painting process much easier and better. 

I am going to go one step further in my thinking about the desk for  painting.  I've decided for myself, I need to have a clean desk. So I have cleared off the piles of papers and finished paintings and odds and ends that were crowding up my desk top and stored them approximately where they belong. It's very refreshing to look over at my desk and see open areas on it.  It makes me very happy to have a clean painting desk and you know what I always say, "If you have a desk and some watercolor paints, a few brushes and a pencil with an eraser and a piece of watercolor paper, you can paint a nice painting, it's not rocket science."

my desk is a drafting table top given to me by a nice stationary store set on top of Ikea saw horses.

Good Bye Italy, Hello U.S.

We returned home on Friday from Italy. It was sad to leave the landscape of ancient scenery and historic sights everywhere. It was also sad to say good-bye to my workshop students but I know we will keep in touch. I am happy to work with anyone after a trip, to make paintings from some of their photographs.

It was great to get back to our home in San Diego and find it in good shape and not damaged by the fires in our area. Best of all, it was wonderful to reunite with Ollie and Socks, our beagles. The dogs were well taken care of by our pet sitter/friend, Debbie Reid, who in our absence trained Socks not to bark, calmed down Ollie, kept our house sparkling and handled the threat of a looming fire and evacuation with excutive level skills. If anyone is ever in need of a house/pet sitter, she is the best and she's an artist and good cook as well.

Yesterday I unpacked my suitcase, distributed my gifts, the  dog hat I bought in Venice was not well received but all of the other souvenirs were well liked. 

I 've put off opening up my agenda to suspend reality from creeping in to my Italian mental state, probably long enough and today will step back into American culture and go to Trader Joes to buy low sugar jelly. 

lft top: Good bye beautiful purses. Lft bottom: Hello burritos. Rgt. Bottom: Socks is the large beagle and Ollie is the small one.

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Rome Was Not Built in One Day or So Many Shoes, So Little Time In Rome

We arrived in Rome around 3:00 this afternoon. There are so many amazing places to visit in Rome it was hard to decide where to go. We decided to go to the National Museum of Rome's main branch in the Palazzo Massimo. It's filled with ancient Roman art.  Some of the gorgeous carved heads are from the first century BC!

I really liked the frescoed walls from the early Roman villas. The most amazing painted wall was a garden scene from Livia's dining room painted in 20-30 B. C.

Walking to dinner down via Nationale we passed some amazing shoes stores filled with amazing Italian made shoes in the latest designs, fabrics and colors. Even my husband, whose least favorite activity is shopping, could appreciate them. When I showed my new shoes to our group at dinner, Ruth snapped this picture. 

"No Parmesan Cheese For You"

We are learning a lot about Italian culture on this trip. We learned that if you ordered a pasta course, you should not eat bread also. I ordered my favorite Tuscan vegetable soup and asked the waiter for parmesan cheese. He, whose name I learned is Gian Lucca, gave me the fierce look and said, "No parmesan cheese for you." I quickly backed down on my request, not wanting to offend the locals.

Today, we leave our temporary home in Siena, Palazzo Ravizza, and disburse to different places around the globe. Linda, Patti, Flo, Marianne, Ruth and Kathy are wonderful travelers, very good artists and a pleasure to have in my workshop. 

Painting the Campo

Rick Steve's suggests viewing the campo at sunset from the restaurant, Il Palio. So that is exactly what we did. He also suggests you try the local aperitif, called a Spritz. It's made with Proseco and either Aperol or Campari. I prefer the Aperol, ummm.

Eileen and Ruth are doing great work.

Ruth and I share the passion for Italian shoes. We now work together like a well oiled shopping machine.

Another Fine Day in Siena

We began our day with a painting lesson in the garden. Everyone is painting really well, I am quite proud of them. After we finished painting we were starving from the exertion of painting so we went out to a delicious lunch at Ristorante 4 Contori. I had fish soup, Eileen had pizza and some had pasta. 

After lunch, we stroll through Siena and discovered a shoe store that fit our styles and budgets. Even Rick bought a pair of new shoes. The shoe shop was run by a woman from Ethiopia. Our favorite resturant in Venice was run by a family from Egypt and this morning we had an enlighted chat with a couple from York, England. I love meeting people feom different countries and heariing their stories. 

So this afternoon I decided to have my hair washed in an Italian beauty shop to save time. Francesco, from Sicily, washed and styled my hair. Then we were off to paint the scenes at the campo

Purses and Paintbrushes

This morning we painted from the garden patio of our hotel in Siena. The hotel is the former palazzo a nobleman bought for his young wife who couldn't bear to leave Siena. The view from the patio looks out at the countryside. After our painting session we all went in different directions to explore.

We found an art supply shop and found some products for watercolor painting that we hadn't found in the U.S. A really cool pen for masking fluid, some paintbrushes with handles shaped for gripping, erasers and pencil sharpeners that ride on the top of your pencil. The name of the art supply shop is Acquarello (which means watercolor in Italian) and Eileen, Marianne and Ruth posed in front of it. 

I am very impressed with the styles and designs of Italian purses available in the shops in Siena. In addition to art supplies I have been motivated to purchase a few.  

Podere Il Casale

We had the most amazing day today. First we visited Pienza where we explored, ate melon flavored gelato and shopped at Miscellanea, the arts and craft jewelry and gift shop, owned by Valeria, wife of Alessandro, the Tuscan chef. Several of us boarded the van embellished with new necklaces, rings and scarves.

We drove to Podere il Casale, an organic farm located right in the middle of the lush, green, Tuscan countryside. We ate lunch seated outside at a table with a view filled with cypress trees, rolling hills, peach colored villas and foliage in every shade of green. 

Not having experienced many slow food meals at home, I was surprised when more food arrived after the first course of salads filled with fresh vegetables and goat cheeses. Pasta was the next course, then a cheese plate with 7 different varieties of cheese made on the farm and we finished the meal with homemade cakes and espresso. I was so full, I could hardly lift my paintbrush to make a quick sketch of the awesome countryside. 

Visited Santa Caterina B&B

Yesterday, when we were in Montisi, we stopped by our friend, Daniela's, B& B.

If you have been to my Montisi villa workshop, you will remember Daniela. She was Alessandro, our Tuscan chef's, assistant. She is a charming enthusiastic Italian woman, who can do everything. I think running a B & B is the perfect job for her because she has a bubbly, welcoming personality and is very creative and artistic, plus she is the fastest dishwasher   I have ever seen.

Santa Caterina is the B& B she has just began running. When we stopped by yesterday the B & B was filled with English guests who had come to attend the wedding of Ann's daughter. Ann is from Manchester and is another wonderful woman who runs tours and lives in the village. Its a very friendly village. 

I wanted to see the B&B because it is where Alessandro and I will hold our cooking and painting classes for 2 weeks in October 2015 during olive harvest season. Alessandro will teach cooking techniques you can use in your suburban home kitchen if you don't happen to own a palazzo or a villa.

We found that the B&B has a great big long dinning room table where we can sit and paint while some of the members of our group are learning to cook. Then we all get to eat the results of the cooking lesson. Alessandro says he can teach 6-8 students so if this workshop is something you might want to do, let me know soon. 

From top left: the kitchen, the views and Alessandro, the Tuscan chef. 

Siena

We left Venice Thursday morning on a train that took us to Tuscany. I slept most of the train ride because we had stayed up quite late listening to the San Diego news on our iphones for news of the fires in our neigborhood in San Diego. Fortunately, over night the fires laid down and we could continue our journey with less worry.

On our last day in Venice, we walked to St. Marks Cathedral. Ruth, who has a habit of tap dancing in front of historical locations did a short tap dance and Rick, Eileen and I posed for photos.

in route to Siena we visited the world's largest private rose garden that contains over 6,000 roses.  

Today we painted in the garden of our Siena hotel and then took off in the van to visit Montisi and San Querico D'Orcia in Tuscany

Paint a Palazzo

Just in case you'd like to paint along with us, here is a drawing and photo for you to paint.

We Visit the Island of Burano

Since rain is forcast for tomorrow we hurried out visit the island of Burano. 

We took a class photo.

Students Arrive to Study Travel Painting With Me in Venice

Learning to paint away from home in a foreign country is serious work. It requires a lot of attention and we are trying very hard.

Venice Doesn't Disappoint

We zoomed through the lagoon in a speed boat, called a water taxi, from the airport to the island of Venice. 

Wonderful, paintable scenery is everywhere.

New York

We were up before dawn to get to the airport for a 6:45 flight. We have a 5 hour lay over in New York, not enough time to go see the Statue of Liberty so we stuck around the airport's Sky lounge. 

Quck sketch of Rick

I fell in love with this coffee machine, I am going to buy one the minute I get home.

a New York salad

Welcome to My New Blog

                                               Michelangelo's Moses, Rome, Italy   Photo by Eileen Condon

Now, I sort of understand how Michelangelo felt when he finished carving his epic marble statue of Moses. His first thought upon putting down his chisel was probably very similar to mine, "Boy, that was a heck of a lot more work then I thought it was going to be."  Of course he said it in Italian.  Then he probably turned to his apprentice and said, "Let's go get some gelato to celebrate finishing up Moses." Of course, he said that in Italian also. 

With this new website and blog it will be so easy for me to update my class page, add new paintings and remove old ones. It should also be much easier for you to leave me a comment on my posts. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on the artwork, ideas and ruminations I post on my blog.

To give you just a little bit of motivation to leave me comments on my posts, I am going to give one Anywhere Art tote bag (with some useful art supplies inside) per week to a person who has left a comment on my blog. I am going to put your name into a hat every time you leave a comment and have one of the beagles pull out the lucky winner each week. I have 4 goodie tote bags for you to win over the next 4 weeks starting right now!

Since the website is new, its going to be added to and embellished.  It would help me a lot if when you comment you told me what you would like to see on my website and what would be helpful posts for you to read on my blog.

Now I am off to get a gelato.