"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.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Good Neighbors

 "Vernazza"
By James Swanson / Traveler Jim M.
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas

Welcome to Day Twelve, 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 and wife Cathy
Approaching Vernazza from the trail/
All photos are from Jim M's website. 
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.

Leaving Vernazza on the trail.
This Trip of Jim and Cathy's just gets better and better. From Venice, to Padua, To Ravenna, to Assisi. to Montone, to Orvieto, to  Agriturismo, to Loro Ciuffenato Certaldoto Lucca, to Carraraand now on to Vernazza, what more can we see?


The weather looked ominous but was actually great for hiking.
How about a challenging hike in some very picturesque land.


Looking back on Monterosso
From Traveler Jim M's Travel Journal.We got off at the northernmost town, Monterosso al Mare, to begin our hike to Vernazza.  Monterosso has (by far) the best sand beaches of the Cinque Terre.  The hike is one of the most challenging and longest hikes between the towns.
Looking back a Vernazza (and Monterosso)
This the photo of Traveler jim M's that I will be using for this painting.
Approaching Vernazza was breathtaking and picturesque. In Vernazza, we stopped for a break at a small restaurant with outdoor seating and had pizza while the waves were breaking over the rock wall.  Pesto pizza is a local specialty.  Some of the waves were so intense that water came rushing towards the tables and almost got our feet wet.   It’s easy to see where the term sea swept comes from!

Traveler Painting "Vernazza": I've been looking forward to painting this one for a while. The views of this town are unbelievable. The water color looks like emeralds, and each building has red in it somewhere.They also seemed to be stacked up right on top of each other.  They must have good neighbors. On to Vernazza-
My rough sketch of the painting on the canvas.
Darks are first painted in,so the painting has structure.
Add Water. The water color is very important to this painting. It's a mix of Cobalt Blue and Viridian Green and Ivory Black.
The sky and the far mountains are next to be filled in.
Working forward I finally get to start on the houses.
Trying to make sense out of the buildings was the hardest part. The white water was a lot of fun  to put in. Most of it was put in with palette knife.
Done! the buildings were  not as much fun as I thought they would be. And working the different shades of red  to get distance was a little time consuming. I know I when over my 2 hour limit on this one.
Details from the painting. 

 Framed and ready to go.

 "Vernazza"
By James Swanson / Traveler Jim M.
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
This paint took most of my skills not to go and noodle out all the buildings. Another painting down and another big thanks to our Traveler couple Jim M and Cathy.
This is day Twelve, 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, to Orvieto, to  Agriturismo, to Loro Ciuffenato Certaldo, to Lucca, to Cararra.

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. Beautiful. The water color is perfect. I think it was worth going over your self-imposed two hour limit.

    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.