Friday, February 23, 2018

First Landscapes, Italy



I have been painting landscapes for almost twenty years now. The first landscape painting that I had done was over in Orvieto in 1999. Orvieto is a medieval town situated on the flat summit of a volcanic stone called Tufa. I was painting on the roof garden of the convent that we were standing in.  The roof had these wonderful views of the hillside and sky across the valley.  Watching the sky and the clouds move over the landscape below and bring to translate that into paint was endlessly interesting for me. I knew that day I could do “this self appointed task” for the rest of my life.  I observed the power of the sky and weather as we moved from winter, into to spring, back into winter, and then into summer .  The subtle beauty of colors that I found in nature would give me a strange felling when i thought that I got it right. I felt as though I could use the landscape to communicate certain emotions that I felt.  I even tried painting at night for the first time.  I came back into the studio to see the mess I had made.  I was a little sad to see that orange and yellow ocher that I had painted of the Tufa in the street lights,  looked so much richer under the electric street light at night than it did the next day in day light, but it didn’t matter.  I had seen it in that moment.  I had the joy of painting with friends and took the time to look around and notice the endless beauty of blue night covering us and vespas, little cars, streets, churches and homes.





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