June Artist of the Month - Randy Baskerville

Last September I had the delightful experience of touring Tuscany, Italy for
three weeks with an art group from the Beverly Street Studio School in
Staunton, Virginia. I decided to try a new medium, gouache, because of its
portability and strong, opaque qualities. We were advised to do quick, small
5"x7" pieces in primed, heavy paper. Before the trip, I filled a purse sized
notebook of gessoed pages with various undercoat colors of acrylics. 

After the first few days touring Rome, I painted my first pieces in the
nearby village of Arezzo where our group enjoyed walking to a beautiful
overlook. 

A day trip from there was to a lovely vineyard which I couldn't resist painting, since it reminded me of my
home in Virginia. 

Another fun day was had painting an overlook of Sienna: there I sat on a
stone wall and pulled out my tiny palette to quickly paint a hillside view. 

Most of the others came from a breathtaking tiny village called Poppi which was an artist's dream.

The trip ended in Florence where I was taken with the
loveliness of the famous Duomo and Ponte Vecchio.  And lastly,
I painted some "Italian onions" just for fun!