Sketching in Italy, Fall 2016, Part 3

Posted on February 1, 2019 by csir2014

Let me begin with apology to my blog. I haven’t posted since October of 2017, and so much has happened in the last 15 months! We travelled to Viet Nam in late fall of 2017, and to Piemonte and Lake Como in September 2018. We’ve spent two weeks of February every year in Key West, and will be leaving for this year’s Key West adventure in a week!

Back to September of 2016, we left San Marino, and drove through Urbino, to Ascoli Piceno; day trips around Abruzzo, on to Sulmona, more day trips, and then on to the coast to Termoli and to our first stop in Puglia – Vieste.”’

On the road

Urbino’s magnificent walls

Coffee break sketch in Urbino

Arriving in Ascoli Piceno at night

Piazza del Popolo, Ascoli Piceno

Tempio di S. Francesco

Leaving Ascoli Piceno after a relaxed morning and lunch in the Cafe Meletti on the Piazza del Popolo, we set out on a long drive to Sulmona, our home base for our explorations in Abruzzo. Our first day began with a walk through the weekly market in Piazza Garibaldi. Very cool. Tom and I are huge fans of public markets. We left mid morning for adventures in Cascio, Castel del Monte, Villa Lago, Scanno, and Introdaqua.

One of the many friendly vendors at the Sulmona market

Ilio DiPaolo’s hometown – Introdacqua!

The man-made lake at Scanno

Villa Lago, L’Aquila

A road trip of beautiful views

View from Via del Municipo, Castel del Monte

The next leg of our trip will begin with Part 4 of Sketching in Italy, Fall 2016.

Sketching in Italy, Fall 2016, Part 2

Posted on October 6, 2017 by csir2014

After a relatively relaxing week in Venice we took the train to Bologna and enjoyed five pretty full days. I did have time for one painting while Tom took his cooking class. I have learned, I should say continue to learn, that if I get to paint, that’s cool, if not, that’s ok too. Keeping my expectations manageable, and happily subject to change is the best way for me to have a good time, one that I can enjoy looking back.

This is the plein air painting, ink and watercolor, that I did in Bologna in the busy square near the University.

A lovely couple from Germany took some photos of me painting. We had a great conversation about Bologna and traveling (no talk about politics!) I am certainly concentrating!

What I really love to do is sketch and fill up my sketchbook with all types of memorabilia to go back to and relive our days. Today, October 6th, I can go back to September 22, 2016 and remember so much about our visit.

Here are two pages, September 25 and 22, and a sketch of via Augusto Righi from Bologna. Fun.

From Bologna we rented a car, and drove to the Adriatic coast and back up into the mountains for a short star in the Repubblica di San Marino. What a treat, just enough out of the tourist season to be able to wander without bumping. Great views from our hotel room complete with a very large patio up in the air above the valley below.

It was a beautiful 2 days of wandering though the streets and around the wall and up and down b between the towers

It was just right for us, a comfortable stay in a pretty cool hotel, resting up for the rest of our very full month in Italy.

I am making a promise to myself to post more often as a bit of time has passed, and I haven’t been completely inactive. So, I will finish our 2016 Italy trip, and fill you in on what the last 12 months have been like for me. Til the next post.

Sketching in Italy, Fall 2016

Posted on November 24, 2016 by csir2014

Our Trip began in Venice…..

This past September and October, 2016, Tom and I undertook a very intense Italian road trip. It began gently enough with nine days in Venice and five in Bologna. From Bologna we rented a car and drove down the east coast of Italy with side trips inland, ending in Lecce in Puglia. We have debriefed and have promised each other that we will remember how tired we were before setting out again. That being said, we saw wonderful places, and met some terrific people. Having had better than a month to recover…..we are talking about another trip next November 2017….with driving!

Our nine days in Venice were perfect, including the must do gondola ride,

and a side trip to Burano and Murano. I loved drawing the colorful houses of Burano.

We lived in a great neighborhood in San Polo in Venice, looking out on the Scuolo Grande di San Rocco and the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

Calle San Rocco

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Our neighborhood canal view behind Scuolo Grande di San Rocco

Venice provided countless opportunities for sketching. Each time we stopped for coffee we tried to select a view for me. Here are a few:

The Grand Canal, near the Rialto Mercato

Dinner view at Campo San Giacomo Dell’Orio

Our last day in Venice had to include San Marco

Two views in Cannareggio

Under the umbrellas at Arcobaleno

I’m going to save my sketches from Bologna, San Marino, Ascoli Piceno, Abbruzzo, and Puglia for future blog posts, promising not to take so long between posts in the future!

Captured Travels

Posted on March 7, 2016 by csir2014

These past months of January and February 2016 have been so intense! My solo show, Captured Travels opened with a beautiful, well-attended reception at Betty’s Restaurant, 370 Virginia Street in Buffalo, on Monday night, January 25, 2016, and will be on view through March 20th. I collected brand new and some older paintings, both studio and plein air, and sketches, and put them all together. Kathleen Sherin did a marvelous job curating and hanging the show, and I sold 10 of the 23 pieces on opening night!

This is a very recent painting that graced the publicity for the show, Palermo’s Finest. I could have sold it several times!

This is a plein air painting, watercolor and ink, from our trip this past fall to Paris. The painting of the Pont de la Tournelle below is from a photo Tom took of me painting the Isle du Saint Louis above!

Two more ink and watercolor paintings are of the Paris Backyards and Cimitiere du Pere-LaChaise, Paris.

My architectural background and love for detail comes out in this ink sketch of a Detail from the Palais Garnier in Paris.

These two plein air ink and watercolor paintings from Varenna on Lake Como “capture”

I have painted many views of the towns and landscape around Lake Como.

Perledo above Varenna, with the “hand of God light”, and the Villa Monastero, one of two beautiful villas open to the public along Lake Como in Varenna.

Here I am painting in Varenna.

The first year that I started to sketch when we travelled was 2010 when we spent some time in Cinque Terre, Italy. These two ink sketches are from there.

We also visited Bologna where we were fascinated by the medieval timber frame architecture.

In Tuscany it was all about the views.

Then there’s our time in Istria in Croatia,

the province of Languedoc in France

and Scotland, Portree near the Isle of Skye and the Duart Castle.

We will continue to travel as long as we can and I will continue to capture our travels in sketchbooks, plein air paintings, and studio paintings. Such a rewarding time.