Ah, just looking at this painting gives me a visceral reminder of just how hot it was up by the Villa's old barn. Although this location was a mere thirty feet away from the house itself, it was situated up higher on the hill and in full sun, with sparse, dry plant growth and gravel underfoot. In fact, the lush, green vegetation depicted here was a result of the plants having the advantage of growing in partial shade. The bugs – flies, wasps and ants were out in full force, somehow thriving in the 30°+ heat, dive-bombing me, landing on me, and in general, annoying the heck out of me! The barn itself was a pleasure to paint, however, with its old beams and sturdy stone structure. While doing the initial sketch, I noticed that there were heavy stones placed along the edge of the roof, perhaps to keep the clay shingles from lifting in the wind?

The best part about sketching on location at Villa Cappella was the sounds all around me – not the noise of the city or vehicles, but the chirping of crickets and birds, the skitter of lizards, and occasionally a brief warning bark from Luna the Villa Dog. I could have sketched there for weeks and never gotten tired of the sounds of the country.
This was a clay basket filled with various river stones that I sketched on my birthday:

A sketch as the sun was setting on the Villa:

At La Cappella (and all around Italy), there were little lizards darting around, sunning themselves when they weren't keeping the bugs under control. I personally am quite enamoured of lizards, and have been since we saw geckos in Maui. To know that they keep bugs at bay makes me love them even more, especially since I really DON'T love scorpions and spiders...

The grapevine canopy over our terrace at La Cappella was a cool respite from the sometime brutally hot sun, and once or twice shelter from the rain:

It was perfect for sitting under to have a meal, or to sketch on quiet afternoons:

There wasn't an inch of Villa Cappella's stone structure that I didn't want to sketch or paint. This was a sunny, sheltered corner beside the front door where herbs and other plants grew in abandon:

I'm now home from Italy, my head swimming with all that we saw and did and experienced (and ate!). The last day and a half has been busy with unpacking, organizing photos, getting back up-to-date with life in general, and fighting jet-lag. Today I'm feeling much more rested, less nauseous and raring to go with all the drawings and paintings I want to create based on all our adventures.
Unfortunately there wasn't as much time as I would have liked to actually sketch and paint while on holiday, but I made up for it with accumulating tons of photo reference, mentally planning future work, and generally just immersing myself in the sights and sounds and smells of Italy.
To start, a bit about the first place we stayed in Italy. La Cappella (the chapel) is a 500-year-old farmhouse that was built on the site of what legend has it was once a religious structure, possibly a wayside chapel used by French pilgrims and monks. The farmhouse was originally built as a family home with stables on the lowest level and over time the structure was expanded for both its human and animal occupants. After several incarnations since the 1970's and much renovation and loving care by its current owners, here is what La Cappella looks like today:

And La Cappella's resident Miniature Schnauzer and our dog-away-from-dog, the gorgeous Luna:



There is so much about La Cappella that is truly inspiring to me, and I hope to be able to share some of that through future art!

My apologies for not blogging any work over the past couple of days, but I am preparing for a trip to Italy!
My plan is to blog from Italy with photos as well as the sketches and paintings I do while I'm there. I'm so excited!
Until then, arrivederci!

And this is the chicken's dopey friend:

This is one of the goofy characters from a game I'm working on with my hubs. I've used Inkscape, a vector graphics program for ease in editing and scaling to any platform.