"Sour Milk Gill" Oil Painting by James Swanson

"Sour Milk Gill" Oil Painting by James Swanson
"Sour Milk Gill" From the award winning painting series.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Expect the Unexpected!


"Shopping in Orvieto"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Fran
11"x14" Oil on Canvas
Welcome to Day Six, of this 14 day Travel paint Special Edition of the Artist and the Traveler. This special project needs an special guest, meet our guide Traveler Jim M.

Travelers Jim M and wife Cathy
In 2007 Jim and his wife Cathy took a 14 day trip to Northern Italy following the trail of PBS travel show host Rick Steves' Italian journey to see the real Italy.
 
Orvieto from the Tenuta Le Velette winery.
This Trip of Jim and Cathy's just gets better and better. From Venice, to Padua, To Ravenna, to Assisi. to Montone,  and now on Orvieto, what more can we see? How about bumping into an old friend? You go and travel to a foreign country looking to experience  different  things, and what happens? You turn around and run into your old neighbor.
Approaching the Duomo in Orvieto
That's not what happen to Traveler Jim M, but to the Artist. I was looking at Jim's journal for the day trying to get a feeling about what I was going to be painting and I see something that catches my eye. One of Jim's photo looks just like a painting i started a few weeks back in anticipation of painting Italy. It was from Traveler Fran from her trip to Tuscany a couple of years ago. Doesn't look like much has changed.
 

Traveler Jim's photo on the left and Traveler Frans is on the right.


From Jim's Travel Journal: After the morning visit to Deruta, we headed across the Umbrian countryside to visit the Tenuta Le Velette family winery.  The winery is situated on a hill with incredible views of Orvieto and the surrounding valley.  White wines are a specialty in Umbria, but they also have award winning reds. 
Beautiful views on the short drive to Orvieto


Travelers Fran and Husband Harold.
Traveler Frans Story: One of the memories Fran remembers most about her trip, besides how beautiful everything was, is the 2 o clock naps. In Italy, everything closes up at 2 o clock for a nap. How great is that! I know I could use a nap at 2 o clock every day.









Traveler Painting "Shopping in Orvieto": Here I am looking at Day 6 Jim M's in his trip journal, and I realize that I've seen one of his photos someplace else. In fact, I just started a painting of this very spot, just a couple of weeks ago. It was from my dear old friend Fran, who was one of our very first Travelers in this series.


Since I had the painting started, I thought I'd do the final touches on it for this days pain.

I came in a little closer than Fran's shot when I designed the painting. If you look it's almost the same cropping what Traveler Jim has in his photo.
The couple in the painting are friends of Frans, who traveled with them on this journey.
This is where I left off on this painting a couple of weeks ago.
Done. I made a few changes that I was going to make anyway on this painting
Details from the painting.
Framed and ready to go.
"Shopping in Orvieto"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Fran
11"x14" Oil on Canvas
That was a little different. I didn't expect that at all. But that's OK, this artist could use a light day of painting on this trip. My deepest thanks again goes out to both these Travelers Jim M. and wife Cathy and Travelers Fran and Husband Harold. 

This is day Six, of this 14 day painting journey of Northern Italy, here are the links to see the rest Venice, to Padua, To Ravenna, to Assisi. to Montone.
Or go to The Artist and the Traveler.org to see them, and many more place and stories. New Travelers and stories are always welcome too! Until next time, Ciao!

 

1 comment:

  1. Wow, this painting turned out amazing. Makes the trip come back to life for us. And I'm wondering what it's going to cost us to hang it in our personal gallery. How bout some farm fresh eggs...like for the rest of your life.

    fran

    ReplyDelete

Have a good travel story and some fun and interesting pictures and we can get started on a painting journey.E mail me here with
name, place, and a few pics of the spot,and I'll get back to you.