Ciao Benvenuto Villa

"Ciao Benvenuto Villa"
By James Swanson and Traveler Fran

16"x20" Oil on Linen

The painting journey, take a look.

Hello and welcome again to The Artist and The Traveler painting series. This paintings Traveler is Fran. Fran is an old friend of mine. We started off our working careers together a long time ago in advertising. She was a writer and still is, and I was an Art Director. We worked on many ad campaigns together and had some good times. But like everything else, we each followed our careers in different directions and lost track of each other.

We met up again a while ago on Facebook and have been catching up on things. In her photo albums I discovered she had gone to Italy, and had some wonderful pictures from there.I asked if she'd mind me painting one of them? She said she would be thrilled to have me paint some pictures from her album.And that is when I came up with the idea to Travel the world and paint from my friends travel experiences. And I thank Fran for finally saying I have a good idea after all those years in advertising. About time.

Traveler Frans story: We celebrated my boyfriend's 50th birthday by renting a villa in Tuscany with some college buddies. It was a week chocked full of pizza baking, laughing, drinking, smarty-pants remarks and generally delicious times. This was the view as you approached, but we actually didn't take this picture until the last day we were there. We arrived prepared for fun and a dash of romance. We left engaged. I suspect someone added more than a dash to one of those Tuscan recipes.

Traveler Fran's Painting: This painting is a little different than all the other paintings in this long series; in fact it really precedes this series. I started this painting before the concept of traveling and trying to connect the dots and people took shape.

This is why I don't have a lot of pictures of the painting from start to finish. What I have is a nice start and some good painting tips.

Here is my initial sketch or thumbnail. I always like to sketch these pictures I get from Travelers and break them down to their ascents. That helps me see what the design and composition options are, a good place to start. Know your subject, or in this case design.

Here's the painting at the end of day one. It's OK a nice block-in I can see where it's going and where it needs to be pushed.

Second day of painting. It's getting close. I do need to use a bigger brush though.
( sorry these painting pics have a big glare on them.)

Tip: Use a brush that is a little bigger than you need it for the area you are painting. There is no one-way to paint I just like to see the stokes of a painting. The colors of the painting are becoming more refined. I'm shooting for big depth in this painting.

This is the third day of painting. I think it's there. but something not yet right.

Tip: When you get to this point-it's close but you're not sure what to do, take a digital picture of it and bring it into Photoshop and look at it. The color might not be perfect but it's a great way to change things up for a look and not have to live with the changes.

Here I've circled and Photoshopped in some changes that I want to make. This is again a great way to help you think about your painting.

Here are the changes done in details from fixed areas.

Detail of Villa

The far back valley

The Trees along the road.

The top ot the hill.

And the finished painting.

I call it "Ciao Benvenuto Villa"- Hello and Welcome Villa.
"16 x 20" Oil on Linen.

Thanks for looking in and checking out this Travelers Painting, check out my archives to see other paintings being done. OK, I'm packed and now I'm off to Amsterdam to meet up with another Traveling friend who has a surprise. Catch ya on down the road. Buon Vicino!