Assisi, Italy: Painting in the Piazza de Santa Chiara

As I mentioned in this post, Assisi was hot this summer.  We could not stay out in the Comune all day, so we had to search for places with shade.  In a way, this turned out to be a good thing as we visited parts of Assisi that we missed last year.

We found the perfect place to do our morning painting session:  the Piazza de Santa Chiara.  Santa Chiara is a huge church with a lovely square as well as a beautiful vista that we had such fun painting.  Most important, the church is so large that we had shade from the building until about 1pm.

We came over here nearly every morning.  The square was a fun place to be.  There were many people visiting the church, school groups putting on performances, tons of fun shops and, most surprising of all, an angel!

This is the landscape looking out from the piazza.  It was beautiful and I did three paintings there.  I did two landscapes that were just small studies, but I did finish a painting that I actually like.  Very unusual for me with outdoor painting.

The photo above is the view that I painted.  It was not easy given all the perspective, but luckily I had time to work on it.  That does not always happen outdoors so it made things much easier for me.

This was my initial block in.  Getting that perspective right was not easy, but with time (and a t-square), I was able to get it done.  After that the sky and the mountains went in.

This was my second day working on the painting.  It was so warm that the paintings dried over night, making it very easy to continue on the next day.

Here is the finished painting on the easel in my studio.  I decided to sign this one, something I never do with my outdoor studies, but I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out.

As I mentioned, while we were in the piazza painting, there was a lot happening.  One of my favorite things about Assisi is that at any moment a singing, musical or dance group will just show up and start performing.  One day a school dance group came by and they were great.  Everyone in the piazza, including us, stopped what they were doing to watch them.

And my favorite part of the square:  the angel.  She was there every morning at the same time we were painting and she would come over to see what we were working on.

Here she is with one of my landscapes.

This was her little set up in the piazza.  In the photo above the three men talking to her were bikers, but this being Italy, they were very fashionable bikers!  She would talk to you for a few minutes and then write out a piece of advice on a card.  We gave her a few Euros one day for writings, and then on our last day she came over to us with a writing for each of us as a gift.  She told us she liked having us around because having artists work in the piazza brought good energy to the place.  I'm not a religious person, but I told her we felt the same way about her.  She definitely had a very intuitive/good energy vibe and I could feel it.

We had a such a  fun time painting here and I hope I get to do it again someday.  

Assisi, Italy: Painting the Via del Pozzo Della Mensa

As I mentioned in this post, the temperature was quite hot this summer in Assisi.  Therefore, we could not hang out all day in our beloved Comune.  We had to find alternative places to paint.  This turned out to be a good thing as we discovered a bunch of new places to paint and new restaurants to visit.

We quickly realized that for our afternoon painting sessions, we would have to find sites that were as cool as possible.  After a bit of walking around, we realized that we could paint in some of the many small tunnels that are all over Assisi.  Somehow we missed seeing these last year, but we were so lucky to have found them as having shade enabled us to paint during the crazy heat wave that was engulfing all of Europe.

This was the temp for most of our visit.  102 degrees every day!  It was insane.  Luckily, Assisi is very dry, so we did not have to deal with the crazy humidity that we have here in New York.  But we did have to be very careful to drink a lot of water and stay out of the sun.

We actually found our first tunnel because we saw a sign for an air conditioned restaurant and while walking out of there after lunch, we found ourselves on the Via del Pozzo Della Mensa.

It looks like a small alley, but this is actually a road with homes on each side.  The residents of the street were lovely and they were so excited to have artists painting outside their homes.  One of the many things I love about the people of Italy is how supportive they are of artists.

As you can see, this road is not very wide and we just assumed it was a pedestrian walkway that the residents on the block used.  We were wrong.  Cars, including an SUV and a small garbage truck, came down the street at least once or twice each painting session.   We had to grab our easels and jump into a doorway!  It was actually kind of fun and just one of those crazy things that happen when you are painting outside.  

We painted in this spot three afternoons.  I had no problem getting in the buildings, the tunnel and the shadows, but as you can see, getting the correct perspective of the road took some work.  It was not as simple as just having the lines meet at a vanishing point as the road had to take the viewer into the tunnel.  After a few tries and some help from Gregg, I got it done.

My finished study

This is my finished study.  I would love to turn this into a large painting at some point.  I have never tried that before, but I may with this one.

This was the view facing out of the tunnel.  You can see how hot it was, but we were so fortunate to have the shade.  We had a lovely time in this spot.  I hope I get to paint there again someday.

Painting In Assisi, Day One

We arrived in Assisi in the middle of an intense heat wave, and that did affect our choice of painting spots.  If you recall, last summer we had perfect weather and we never left the Comune (the town square).  This year, we were only able to be there the first two mornings.  The weather was very dry, so humidity was not a problem, but the sun was so intense it was impossible to stand in a spot without shade.

We parked ourselves in front of the Minerva Temple as there was a bit of shade there.  Gregg started off the workshop by setting up and then doing a demo for us.

We set our easels up right next to the temple.  It was easy to just go up the steps and sit in the shade for a few minutes when it got too hot.  Many other people had the same idea, so it was a bit crowded, but when you are painting outside you have to expect those things.

This is my easel set up facing the cafe in the square.  They had a big fan that was misting water and we all ran over there a few times to cool off.  Luckily, the shopkeepers in town are very welcoming to artists, so they didn't mind.

This is the block in that I did in the few hours we were out there.  I would have loved to finish it, but it just was not possible.  That happens with outdoor painting and you just have to move on to the next thing.  I do feel like I captured the heat of the day and it will be a nice memory to have, finished or not.

This was our shady spot.  You can see through the columns on the left a stage was being set up.  There is free music all over Assisi and it is such fun to see these shows.  Last year there was a Beatles show taking place while we were painting!

This is the Minerva temple at night.  It is incredibly beautiful and a bit surreal that people are just hanging out on the steps of a structure that is thousands of years old.  I did go inside one day and the interior is beautiful and there is a ton of amazing art work.  You can see free art all over Italy just by going inside the churches.

So that is a recap of my first painting.  We did find a shady spot the next day and we were quite productive there.  I will show you some of those paintings in future posts.

Hope everyone is having a good September 1.  I can't believe summer is almost over :(

I'm Back!

Hello Everyone.  I hope all of you are enjoying these last weeks of summer.  I have to apologize for my unintended blog break.  Unfortunately, I had an accident a few weeks ago and I am just now getting back on my feet.  I hope to be blogging regularly from now on.

One good thing that happened this summer is that I returned to Assisi, Italy for the yearly painting workshop held there by Gregg Kreutz and Art Workshop International.  We had a great time and painted everyday, though in different spots than last year.

I left New York one day early so I could visit Rome.  I had a great time, but it was 95 degrees so I did not do as much walking around as I had hoped.

The newsstand on my corner carries this paper, but it was fun to see it on all the newsstands around Rome #travelgeek

I was having a great time wandering around these little alley ways, but when it was just too hot to stay out any longer, I found a pizza place that advertised air conditioning.  It was really just a couple of fans, but definitely better than nothing, so I went in there to relax and have some pizza.  We have good pizza here in New York, but there is nothing like having pizza in Italy, which I proceeded to do nearly every day of the trip!

The guys who worked in the restaurant were great and we had fun taking pictures.

Back out on the street, I wandered over to a park that was nice and shady.  I came upon this fantastic little place that someone needs to copy here in New York.

The Biblio Bar had books, wine, prosecco, cappuccino, sandwiches and pastries.  It was just the greatest little place.  Even the police came by for a snack!

I think every big city in the world has the same tour buses!

I took this shot of the Vatican on my way back to the hotel.  Luckily, I went there a few years ago because there was no way I could wander around there in the heat.

My painting buddies were waiting for me at the hotel and the next day we traveled on to Assisi to begin the painting workshop.  I actually like two of my plein aire paintings (very unusual for me) and I will tell you about them in my next post.

Glad to be back!!

More Painting In The Comune di Assisi

As I said in this post, upon our first visit to the Comune di Assisi, we fell in love and ended up spending all of our painting time there.  The little square is so beautiful, and the people so artist friendly, that we had no desire to go anyplace else.

I took a ton of photos of the Comune, but I was so into my painting that I did not document those very well!  Not good for an art blogger, but I will show you what photos I do have.

I worked on this painting over two mornings.

This is a little trattoria opposite from the fountain.  I simply turned my easel around while standing in the same spot under the pharmacy awning. The sun was very bright and the awning and umbrella were such fun to paint.

But I have to tell you, eating in the trattoria was even better than painting it!  The restaurant was closed on most of the days we were there, but one afternoon they opened up and we quickly made a reservation.   The lunch I had there was one of the best meals I've ever eaten in my life.
I just had a farro/veggie soup and some roasted veggies and potatoes, but it was absolutely delicious.  We were all set to go back the next day, but they never opened up again while we were there.

I also spent one day painting the Chiesa Nuova church.  I did not go in the church, but there is a small cell in there where St. Francis was locked up by his father so he would not give up his wealth to follow God.   There are many churches in Assisi, but this one seemed to attract the most visitors.  Across the alley way from the church was a tunnel made of heavy stone, and it was so nice and cool in there that I spent the whole day painting inside it.

As you can see from the photos, the sky was changing throughout the day.  When I got there in the morning, it looked like it was ready to pour, then the sun started coming out, and then it was beautiful. Things can change very quickly while painting outdoors so you have to be ready for anything.

This is my one day painting of the church.  I had intended to go back to that spot and work on it some more, but it didn't happen.

School and religious groups gathered in front of the church every day and the courtyard was always quite busy.  I was glad I was able to paint in my little tunnel.

On the other side of the church was another fantastic trattoria.  They had the best farro estivo (farro and beans) that I've ever tasted.  Can you tell I'm missing the food?

Sitting outside to eat was the perfect break from painting.

This is the cover of the menu.  I love how they change what they serve based on the season.

I have some other paintings from the trip to show you, but I'm going to put them in a separate post.  Have a great Sunday everybody!