It's not the End, but a Beginning.

"The Roof  Tops"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Jim M.

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas

Welcome to Day Fourteen, 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.!  

Our hosts on this trip, Travelers Jim and Cathy.

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.

The view from Sacro Monte.

This Trip of Jim and Cathy's just gots better and better. From Venice, to Padua, To Ravenna, to Assisi. to Montone, to Orvieto, to  Agriturismo, to Loro Ciuffena, to Certaldo, to Lucca, to Carrara, to Vernazza, and now on to Orta San Giulio, what more can we see? 

We discovered this beautiful statue on our walk.

 A lot of tears and sad goodbyes to some wonderful people. It's the last day of the trip.

From Traveler Jim M.'s Travel Journal: At breakfast, I started to feel pretty congested, and Nicole gave me a decongestant (again, showing that she was well prepared).  Those of us that were left said our goodbyes.   Cathy and I were headed for a short post tour trip to Stresa so we arranged with the hotel to store our bags while we went out to explore a little more of Orta San Giulio

Travelers Jim and wife Cathy
on their last night of the trip.

Exploring Orta San Giulio

We walked around a little and then hiked up to Sacro Monte where there are many unique chapels. On the way, we stumbled onto an old cemetery that looked pretty interesting, so we stopped for a look.  Many of the crypts had photographs of the deceased.   I found this really unusual, but also very compelling to see what the people buried here had looked like. See Jim M.'s website for more of their trip.

Snow in the mountains is a sure sign of Italy's approaching autumn.
This is also the photo that I will be working with on this last painting.

Traveler Painting"The Roof Tops" I know this was a virtual trip, and I didn't go on this trip with these folks, but I do feel a real sadness upon reaching this last painting of their 14 day trip. I think the blues in the mountains of this painting say it all for me. 

Capturing the blues of the mountains was the whole thing about this painting for me.  Get that right and everything else should fall into its place.

The painting "The Roof Tops"- 

The sketch on canvas.

My palette and colors. Lots of different blues were mixed to start.

The dark colors were painted in first.
The up close buildings get the darkest and warmest colors.
The mountains  didn't get any.

I'm painting very quickly here and missed taking a photo of the mountains painted in. The clouds were added next.

Now back to the roofs and building details.  The middle ground is also started, to be put in

Done, well pretty much. The painting is full of wet paint and my time is up for a plein air painting. 

 Details from the painting.

Framed and ready to go.

"Roof  Tops"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Jim M.

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas

Travelers Jim and Cathy were excellent hosts on this virtual trip of ours.  And I just want to thank them just one more time, for saying yes to this art project. I couldn't have done it without you two! The painting was hard enough to do in one day, but also writing a blog at the same time would have been impossible for me if it wasn't for their wonderfully put together website of the trip. I hope we can do this again sometime it was a fun special to do.

This was day Fourteen, 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 Ciuffena, to Certaldo, to Lucca, to Cararra, to Vernazza to 

Orta San Giulio.

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!