Rome: Wednesday, June 9

I was forced to spend the morning writing my quarterly report for school. With all the hoopla before I left it totally slipped my mind.

In the afternoon I headed to the area known as Trastevere across the river. It has lots of little winding streets and shops.Shoes for sale everywhere! Hard to resist. I was trying to find the Rome Botanical Gardens and the walk should have only taken 30 minutes but for me it got to be an hour before I finally asked someone. Since I was standing in front of the Spanish Embassy it is only natural that I picked someone who was Spanish speaking to ask directions. Fortunately, she had a friend who spoke English and redirected me and I was at the garden in no time. Since it was now early afternoon it was brutally hot. I left the gardens to eat and get something to drink. I sat in a little outdoor cafe and an painted this little painting while eating my mushroom pizza. Afterwords I headed back to the gardens. I took lots of pictures and did another small study. Below is the view of the greenhouse that wish I had had time to paint.

A Day of Painting in Rome - Sunday June 6

For some reason deciding what to paint has always been tougher than doing the actual painting. I decided to just go with my instincts since almost everything is worth painting in Rome. I think I look for the light, color and shapes. I am trying to focus more on food related themes since that is what my fellowship is about. The painting above is in the Piazza de Maddelena and the restaurant in Clemente's.

I am a little rusty so today has been getting back into the feel of painting. I have found if I leave watercolors for long it takes a few tries to get back up to speed with such things as getting first washes dark enough and thinking about what I want to emphasize. I love the luminosity of watercolors and the calligraphic quality that can be achieved with brushwork. Watercolors always has seemed more connected to drawing because of this. I am just destined to always be a student of this medium.

In the afternoon I headed up to the Piazza del Popolo and stopped at Gusto for lunch. It is a restaurant and kitchen store. I so wanted to sit and paint in the kitchen store filled with tea pots and all kinds of kitchen gadgetry. I may go back. Lunch was the most delicious green spaghetti with black truffle oil, spinach and tomoatoes.I did some little studies while eating lunch. I will try to post later.

I went to the Piazza Navonna and had a pizza. It seems very commercial there and very tourist oriented.