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More Italy Stuff

20-Aug-07

I’ve noticed something about Italian cities.

They don’t have any glass in many of their windows!

I plead ignorance on this, but from what I’ve observed, their are a lot of windows that are just shuttered like the one you see here. This one apparently with shutters on the inside.

I wish my neighborhood was like this. Just fling open big ol’ shutters each morning with no worries about somebody invading your home. Come to think of it, I could probably do that here. The media has me thinking I can’t due to the constant reporting of home invasions and other alarming crimes.

But alas, I don’t have any big ol’ windows that are just shuttered. And my house isn’t an antique like this one. So I’ll just raise the glass sashes and “be American”.

If you get a wild streak and want to own some Idle Minutes art,
this one is up for auction at eBay

Also filed in Gardening, Landscapes | | Comments (0) »

Colle Alta, Tuscany, Italy

15-Aug-07

Painting scenes from Italy is altogether fun. Not only is Italy full of intact, ancient buildings, it is that very aspect that makes it scenic. The thing I like most is the variations in the blocks, forms and angles of the buildings and roof lines. Everything seems to simply follow the existing terrain. A novel idea, eh?

This scene is of a place called Colle Alta. At this early point in my journey into sketching and painting scenes from Italy, I’m not going to pretend to be in tune with Italy, or that I’m some hip, seasoned traveler, in the know about all things Italian. Heck, I’ve never been there. I do eat a lot of pizza though. And I grew up happily listening to Dean Martin on the record player. So I’m just going to learn about the places I paint, and enjoy painting them, and imagine what it would be like to be there. One day I’ll go, and then I’ll be hip, and justifiably travel snobby if I so choose.

So dear reader, let’s have a tiny geography lesson shall we?

Colle Alta is the well preserved medieval center of a town of 20,000+ called Colle di Val d’Elsa. This means “Hills of Elsa Valley”, Elsa being the river that passes through the valley. The town is located in Tuscany, in the province of Siena. Perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of Italy. Certainly from the viewpoint of an artist.

Colle Alta is in the upper part of the town and is the oldest part. Have you ever heard the phrase “so and so is as old as dirt”? Well dating from the 9th century AD, this town qualifies. When I hear that phrase, my mind always conjures up an ancient scene like this.

Most people agree it is a real treat to tromp around such a place and experience the ancient-ness of it. I would certainly be one of those people. One day I will likely do that. In the mean time though, I simply look at the skyline of the Blue Ridge Mountains when I’m tooling around in North Georgia and remember that Mother Earth Herself is so dang old it isn’t funny. I marvel at the ancient geology right here at home and try to make sense of it…much like I marvel at the idea that this man made town in Italy is still intact after so very, very long.

It’s a wonderful thing that which is ancient…all of it…here or there.

If you get a wild hair to own some Idle Minutes art…
This painting is being auctioned on eBay

Also filed in Landmarks, Landscapes, Postcard Art, Sketching and Drawing, Stories, Travel Sketches | | Comments (0) »

San Gimignano, Italy

09-Aug-07

As I mentioned earlier, I have a few sketches from Italy I’ll be posting.

If anyone is interested, they are being auctioned on eBay. You can follow the link below to see everything I’ve posted there if you like.

There is a gallery of all of them at the bottom each listing after the “about me” section.

Here is the link

Also filed in Landscapes | | Comments (0) »

Tuscany Rooflines

09-Aug-07

Have you ever been to Italy? Or as some of us here in the South have been known to pronounce it, “It’ly”.

I haven’t.

My dear wife has been invited by some friends (these are friends of mine as well) to join them on a trip there in November. I will be sending her off with specific photographic assignments so that I may create some sketches upon her return.

Some day I’ll go there myself I suppose. Who knows? If I do, it will have to be with a group so that my wife can stay with them while I venture off and sit for hours sketching.

Until then, I will have to sketch from reference photos, taking little pieces of them and creating sketches of my own as I’ve done here.

You see, I like sketching architecture and scenes with interesting buildings and groupings of buildings in them. Unfortunately, where I live, there are no poppy fields or buildings that are centuries old. Thus I’m left to work from photos of such places.

My environment is Southern American Suburbia and its architecture changes in the blink of an eye it seems. Not only that, it’s all built for a temporary stay of say 50 years on this earth at most. The Omni, a sports arena built here in Atlanta, where Elvis last performed in Atlanta, lasted about 30 years and was demolished. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, lasted about 30 years and was demolished as well. Both demolished to build new sports arenas. Go figure!

Add to that the inherent “fake-ness” of the designs and building methods and you have something that makes for a “why bother” syndrome for an artist.

I’ll have to overcome that. I’ve considered simply sketching it, Suburbia that is, in all its glorious boredom and fakery, and making that a theme. I may yet do so. But for now I’m just not seeing Suburbia’s intrinsic value for the subject of a sketch, painting, or drawing.

So, here is some “It’ly” for you instead. More It’ly to come.

Also filed in ACEO Art Cards, Landscapes, Sketching and Drawing | | Comments (2) »

30 minute experiment

26-Jul-07

I’m reading a new book called “Watercolor Plus…” which has a good section in it on pen and ink with watercolor washes.

The artist, John Hoar, drew and painted this scene as a demo. I’ve not adhered to the demo at all really. I was simply experimenting with the looser style he uses.

I like looseness but it has been a bit elusive for me to “get it” in my mind’s eye. So, I’ll concentrate on it for a while. It’s faster and I’ve always liked the idea of letting the viewer’s mind complete that which is but a suggestion of reality. It makes it more interesting for them I think.

One unusual thing John does is use a whittled match stick shoved into a bamboo stick for his “pen”. He dips it in Indian Ink and draws the image with it. It forces a loose drawing.

Think about it…It’s pretty dang hard to draw a “tight” drawing with a whittled match stick shoved into a piece of bamboo and dipped into a bottle of ink. It’s sort of like painting your toenails with a whisk broom. (Not that I paint my toenails mind you.) I think this is a big key to his style. (BTW, if I did paint my toenails, which I don’t, they wouldn’t be black. But that’s a subject for a future post.)

I try to steer clear of utilizing cumbersome means toward achieving a drawing or painting or sketch, so I used a Micron “brush” pen instead. It’s a trade-off. Convenience for a slightly less “loosy” drawing. I just don’t want to become attached to some technique that isn’t practical for sketching or drawing in the car or in the field. Think spilled Indian Ink on automobile seats of Fine Corinthian Leather.

So, I’m hoping to coerce the Micron brush pen to achieve similar results with some practice.

John also uses half size watercolor sheets for his paintings…which for me is another “not so practical for the field” choice…though he does do “in the field” paintings with these tools.

Some folk like to tote along a bunch of stuff like that and do their painting thing. The attention doesn’t bother them. I like to tote as little as possible. I like it all in a fanny pack. I like being discreet when sketching in the field. When at home, hey, I may sketch in my underwear. But when in public, I’d just as soon not be noticed when I sketch. So I wear clothes…and use tools and media that are inconspicuous.

I did this on an 8×10 watercolor block I made up from Canson Montval watercolor paper. That’s about as big a sketch as I tend to tackle.

Which begs the question to my artist readers out there, have you noticed there are no 8×10 watercolor blocks or pads or sketchbooks on the market? What’s with that? Zillions of 8×10 frames in North America, no 8×10 watercolor media. Go figure. So I have to make my own.

But I digress…the book is great and the other artists in the book are top notch as is John Hoar. I’ll be re-reading and experimenting more with this style for a while now.

Also filed in Landscapes, Quick Sketches, Sketching and Drawing, Style | | Comments (6) »

Sunday Afternoon Exercise

22-Jul-07

Ahhhh, exercise. While most visitors to the Leita Thompson Memorial Park in Roswell, Georgia were there to walk or jog the woodlands trail for their exercise, I was their to exercise my sketching skills this Sunday afternoon. All the while happily keeping my lazy rear end parked in the comfy seat of my automobile.

My wife came along and read in her new book…something to do with deathly hallows and some kid named Harry who rides a broom for sport. And our doggie, Rosie, came along to exercise her lounging skills while stretched out in the back seat.

This fountain in the memorial garden interests me because it is built of stone. I’ve always admired the patience and skill required to build anything of substance out of stacked and mortared stones. It is a skill that at once requires thought in design, engineering, precision, layout, materials management, perseverance, and hand/eye coordination with simple tools. Your average person can’t produce stone masonry that is both beautiful and crafted to stand the test of time. It’s simply not the stuff of Home Depot clinics.

Also filed in Design, Passing Time, Stories | | Comments (2) »

A Dock at Callaway Gardens

15-Jul-07

Without providing details, I’ve been ill. I’m gradually feeling better and I’m going to get rolling on sketching again. Sorry for the two month downtime. Sometimes things don’t go as we want.

Callaway Gardens in South Georgia, is an unusual place. It’s an outdoor place. In Spring, it’s ablaze with azaleas practically everywhere, hundreds of acres of them. They have a very nice horticultural center, and a butterfly center, which is an entire building dedicated to housing and raising live butterflies…thousands of them.

They have miles of bicycle trails too and walking trails through the gardens and woods. And three golf courses, a tennis center, a large swimming lake and beach, a circus in the summer, a gigantic vegetable garden, fishing boat rentals, bike rentals, fly-fishing store, a couple of restaurants, a wonderful summer program for kids, a lodge and conference center, cabin rentals…it’s a resort I suppose…a family oriented resort.

I know of nothing like Callaway Gardens. It’s not a typical resort. It’s quieter and isolated in an unusually out of the way place. It’s in nowhere land really. A little town in South Georgia, called Pine Mountain. It would be safe to say there is nothing in South Georgia except a bunch of little bucolic towns, the pastoral scenes between them, and the hard to imagine ways of life lived in each little house, trailer, shack, or rare “big house” one passes on the two-lane highways. Other than that, there are a half dozen small sized cities, a few low-key tourist attractions, and Callaway Gardens.

I’ve been there a lot since I was a kid. Off the beaten path, there is this dock with a shake shingled roof, which I think used to be a boat house. It sits lonely below the overlook pavillion in the very shallow end of a small lake. It’s abandoned as far as purpose. Dirt Daubers and turtles have moved in and call it and the shallow waters beneath it home.

The turtles await food from people like me who come to visit. I had none so they just poked their heads out of the water and stared at me with forlorn eyes. The Dirt Daubers…well…they just stay in their little clay homes and buzzzzzzz apparently. There were more Dirt Dauber nests than I recall seeing in one place, twenty maybe. But only a couple of them flew about me for a moment to check me out. Other than that, they all just buzzzzzzed in their nests.

This being the first attempt at sketching in two months, it was a “therapy” sketch more than anything. So, not much in the way of humor or meaning here. The timber bracket bracing up the roof is what caught my attention because I’d not ever seen brackets designed the way these were. So be it…that’s all there is behind this sketch.

I’ll see if I can’t do better as I try to get rolling here again.

Thanks to all my readers for sticking by. You are all much appreciated!