Ok, I’m ready to share some painting with you. It isn’t pretty, but it is much better than it was. Don’t forget, you can click on pictures to make them bigger.

But first…

At the end of week 5 the students at Studio Escalier were blessed with a week’s vacation time. In my ultimate wisdom I had chosen to travel to sun and sea in Cinque Terre, Italy. With overcast, cool, rainy weather in Argenton-Chateau, a week of warm bliss was most welcome. It was beautiful.

I stayed with my parents in the town of Riomaggiore. You can see where we stayed on most postcards.

Dad and I hiked part of the trail that winds along the cliffs. The first part of it was closed due to flood that occurred in 2011. While 17 million Euro (that was the number I thought I heard..seems a little high) was dedicated to repair the trail system, it seems to have disappeared (according to a tour guide I overheard). We were able to hike from Corniglia to Monterosso. The UP was quite steep but manageable. The trails were VERY narrow (in places we had to squeeze by other hikers while gripping the rocks behind them). The view was marvelous. That water…I spent a week floating in it. Incredible.

On the way back I was so happy to stumble upon an Alfons Mucha exhibit (in Genoa). Most people are familiar with his work and it is truly lovely. What really astounded me are his studies. There were a great deal of his drawings displayed. Mucha made a conscious choice to pursue the art nouveau style from a deep understanding of classical works.

ok – Painting…So these first two images show what I have been working on for about 4 weeks. I think they are terrible, but now that I have something slightly better I don’t mind sharing them. We have been working on two types of color studies – poster and rounding. The idea is to record the colors and light correctly to prepare for more in depth painting. So this first group of 3, not so pretty. You can see how my most recent poster study below shows a bit more understanding of color and light. I still find painting to be completely exhausting.

And below is week five’s drawing. In class we are currently working on a 10 day pose. While we are technically only halfway through the course, I feel like the end is just around the corner. I’m hoping that my subconscious soaks up enough information to help me at home!