It's a Miracle. Lesson learned, for now.

 "Assisi"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Jim M.

10"x 8" oil on canvas

Welcome to Day Four, 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 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.

Old Assisi from the castle.

This Trip of Jim and Cathy's just gets better and better. From Venice to Padua To Ravenna and now on to Assisi what more can we see? Well there are still a lot left in this trip so stay tuned.

Fun hand carved statue in Assisi.
All photos used are from Jim's adventure.

Traveler Jim M Journal Story: Next up, we got back on the bus for a short trip to the hill town of old Assisi.  Here we had a guided tour of the Basilica of St Francis given by a local guide.

 

Assisi from the bus.

You may remember that the Basilica was heavily damaged in a 1997 earthquake and was closed for nearly two years.  It has since been restored, reopened, and is said to be earthquake-proof.  For the tour, we used individual wireless headsets because of the requirements to be very quiet inside the church. Click or more of Jim's tale.

Saint Mary of the Angels church in Assisi.
 I will be working with this photo on this 4th day of the painting trip.

Travelers Painting "Assisi": So far in this painting trip we've painted Gondolas, a church, and a landscape, now I'm taking a shot at a statue. Italy is just so filled with beautiful art, buildings, and Jim's site captured so much of it, I needed paint some. This statue on St. Mary's church of Angels I thought would work well for this next one. It's different than the others and looked like a challenge.
I tried a new canvas for this painting. But half way into the painting knew I made a mistake. It was a small painting so I thought I could get by the trying this other type of canvas. Oh my God, the paint wouldn't stick, no matter how much paint I put on! Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. Remember, an artist never blames himself, he blames his materials. So hence the title of this blog-It's a Miracle- that this painting was able to be finished. Now on to the Miracle-

 

Right here in this stage of the painting is were I ran into trouble with the canvas holding  paint at all really showed up. All it would take was thin strokes and scape off any paint laid underneath. Since I was painting plein airish I had to power on through, no time to start over.

 

Done, for now at least. I'll try and go back into this one after it dries and see if can't get a little more paint in the right places.  

Details from the painting.

 

Framed and ready to go soon.

 "Assisi"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Jim M.

10"x 8" oil on canvas

 I almost gave up on this one. And I probably should have and tried it again. But if I were painting right there I wouldn't have been able to, so on ward ho. Thanks as always to Jim M. and Cathy for letting me tag along on this trip of theirs. 

This is day Four, of this 14 day painting journey of Northern Italy, here are the links to see the rest Venice, to Padua, to Ravenna.

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!