Vermont Workshop Finishes Up

Here are some of the beautiful places Susan Abbott took us to paint.

We finished the workshop today with a final critique. We pinned our paintings on her studio wall to study them.

i am so glad I came to Vermont to attend this workshop.  I learned so much about painting outdoors using an easel.  I had no idea how beautiful rural Vermont was going to be and how special it would be for a city girl like me to stay on a farm.  The other day I sat down under an apple tree to sit in the shade and paint.  I was so surprised when the apples spontaneously fell from the tree.  I moved out from under the tree to avoid getting smacked in the head by a falling apple.  I should have known about this apple falling phenomena much earlier in my life I think.

Vermont Subject Matter

Hollister Hill Farm And Dog

Farm women on porch

New Baby Pigs

Lots of Inspiring Scenes Are Everywhere in Vermont. Who knew?  Why didn't you tell me sooner?

A Californian in Vermont

On the drive from Boston to Vermont today I realized several important deficits in my life experience.

1. Never visited an L. L. Bean store in New England.

2. Never owned a pair of boat shoes. 

3. Never seen a road sign that says "Moose Crossing". 

4. Never saw 12 shades of different greens in one landscape.

5, Never seen a red barn with cows in front of it. 

6. Never knew a rooster crows at any time of the day. 

7. Never saw trees that produce pancake syrup. 

Traveling is an eye opening experience...

Paint Surgeon

I sometimes think I should have gone to medical school and become a doctor.  I think it would be wonderful to be a healer. 

However, let's get real. I chose to go to art school over medical school and I was never very good in science class.  

This morning I did get to perform surgery on my watercolor paint tubes and the operation was a success.

I needed to make up a new palette because I am taking a workshop in Vermont this week with Susan Abbott and I wanted to try out all the colors shes uses in her paintings.  I found I had many of the colors she suggested but some were old and hardened in their tubes. So I performed "paint ectomies" and removed the dry paint and put it in pans in my palette. 

Surgery Tools

Patient

Messy process

Paint transplant recipient

Painting Revealed Here

I completed this painting last night.  The subject is dear to my heart and one I feel strongly about. 

Beagles are used to test a wide range of products from cosmetics to cigarettes. They are used because of their docile, sweet demeanors and I have heard because their DNA is similiar to that of humans.  

I am sending this painting to the Beagle Freedom Project in Los Angeles. The painting will be auctioned off at their fund raiser this weekend to raise more money to convince labs who use beagles for research to release the beagles for adoption after they have finished their research. 

I adopted a beagle after she was released from a lab five years ago. It has been a joyful journey to watch her change from a meek, timid animal, who couldn't walk on a leash without flipping herself over every minute, to a lively dog full of vigor who loves everyone and enjoys a full life. 

Check out the Beagle Freedom's website, www.beaglefreedomproject.org

Surprize Painting to Be Unveiled Shortly

I have been working on a new painting that I am very excited about. I can't reveal what the subject is just yet. I will show it to you as soon as its finished

My mystery painting. Want to guess what the subject might be? 

I've Been Out and About Doing This and That

First I packed up my suitcase.  Ollie, the beagle lost suitcase sleeping access when she started chewing the sides of the suitcase.

Then I went to Myrtle Creek Nursery in Fallbrook last Sunday to participate in an art fair. 

This is the sign I had in front of my table on which I had paintings, cards and a flyer with my upcoming at classes I am teaching at Fallbrook School of the Arts starting this July.

My friend, Mark Jurecki, who is an awesome sculptor, had the table next to me. Can you see his polar bear sculpture on his table? The title on the polar bear sculpture read "Bi-polar". A good time was had by all. 

My Discovery Which Completes My Art Studio

Your art studio and office should be a room you enjoy spending time in. I found you can't function in a big messy room with piles of paper and art supplies haphazardly placed anywhere. So I put on my big girl pants and hat and threw away the junk, got rid of the clutter, found a home for each catagory of art supply and filed the papers.  

Still something was missing from my art studio. A spot for my little rescued from a lab, beagle dog, Ollie.  I brought in her dog bed but she didn't want it. Today I found the perfect thing already in my studio to make her feel at home.

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.

i

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