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!

Dr. Who Would Be Proud, The Then and Now.

 "Orta San Giulio"

By James Swanson / Traveler Jim M.

14" x 11" Oil on Canvas

 "Orta Lago"

By James Swanson / Traveler Anna T.

28" x 20" Oil on Linen

Welcome to Day Thirteen, 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

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.

Isola San Giulio in Orta
All photos are from Jim M's website. 

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 Ciuffena, to Certaldo, to Lucca, to Carrara, to Vernazza, and now on to Orta San Giulio, what more can we see?

Piazza Mario Motta in Orta San Giulio

How about a little Time Traveling!

Church of the Assumption in Orta San Giulio

This next painting is about the story of two Travelers and two paintings and how they crossed paths, or how I bumped into Traveler Jim M. in the first place-sort of Dr. Whoish.

Traveler Anna and family

Part 1: I was working on a Traveler painting from the photo ( below right) with another Traveler, Anna T. from Italy. The photo was of her and her families trip to Orta San Giulio from years ago .

Traveler Anna T.s photo
from many years ago.

Jim M.'s photo from about the same
 spot a couple of  years later.

I was running into problems with the painting and couldn't get the visual answers I needed from Anna's old photo.

So I did a web search for Orta lago and found to my amazement a photo of almost the exact spot. And that all the buildings looked exactly like they did in Traveler Anna's photo still.

When I delved in a little farther and found Traveler Jim M's website. And one thing lead to another, and here we are 13 days into a 14 day painting trip.

So this is what I have for you. Two Travelers at the same time, but not in the same time. Wow, I feel like Dr. Who.
First Traveler Anna T.s and following that is Traveler Jim M.'s

This is the point in the painting that I ran into Traveler Jim M. His photo helped in a few things.

 Done! I really liked the color in Anna's photo. It's one of the things that drew me in to want to paint it in the first place.

 Detail from the painting.

  Framed and ready to go.

"Orta Lago"

By James Swanson / Traveler Anna T.

28" x 20" Oil on Linen

And now Part 2: Traveler Jim M.'s trip.

 From Traveler Jim M's Travel Journal. "Lake” Orta is the smallest of the major lakes in northern Italy (Maggiore and Como are much larger).  Along the way, we had lunch on the road at one of the Italian rest stops called “Auto Grilles”. The Auto Grilles are a combination gas station, convenience store, restaurant, and rest area.  A pleasant surprise, the food was prepared and presented similarly to a buffet at a nice restaurant, but was inexpensive and tasted great.

 We arrived in Orta San Giulio to a light rain.  Somehow, on the way into town, we “missed” the bus parking and Giorgio drove us all the way to the hotel (I think this was a violation of policy, but we didn’t get arrested).  We checked into the wonderful Hotel La Bussola and had a great view from our terrace

 Done. I have a little more work to do on the reflection on this one, but the paintings too wet to do much with it. It's good for now.

Details from the painting.

 Framed and ready to go.

 

 "Orta San Giulio"

By James Swanson / Traveler Jim M.

14" x 11" Oil on Canvas

Two for the single price of admission, not bad.Thanks goes out to traveler Anna T. and her family, and also to our wonderful tour guides on this trip Jim and Cathy.

This is day Thirteen, 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.

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!