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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!
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This is the final portrait. The last phase is really about details and contrast and taking the time to step back (literally) from the easel and viewing the piece as someone in a gallery might. I have heard that a 8-10 foot rule as a viewing distance is a good place to start. I have often pondered how one decides when a piece is complete. I think i could really work a piece forever because depending on mood and lighting and other extraneous forces I see the piece differently every time I look at it. Sometimes I think you just need to call it because you are just fiddling around and not really making progress just changes that amount to nothing. In the end, I have to like the piece before I let it go. The catch of course is that once I have it to that point, I dont want to let it go! ha ha. Thanks for reading and following...more artists to come. Have a great summer!  |
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