DAY 4 in ITALY.....DAY 2 IN CORTONA -Part 1

DAY 4 in ITALY.....DAY 2 IN CORTONA -Part 1


 I began the morning on a walk on a path the wraps around the town Joan, Vivian, Val and Jennifer
 ( we call them The Sisters) Val, Vivian and Jennifer...who are all completely darling are sisters. 

Supposedly none of them are ARTISTS....but I beg to differ. We would each share at dinner what we had painted during the day, and I can tell you they are all three ARTISTS!!

 Our walk took us past Bramasole, the house from Under the Tuscan Sun, which I hear is currently for sale. Though the movie makes it seem as though the town lovingly embraced Frances Mayes, but the word is that many in the town did not welcome her and the tourists that her book, then movie brought.

Bramasole

Remember in the movie, how Frances watches the old, sad man put flowers in the little cement window ?( i am sure i has a beautiful name, but I don't know what it is).

 Well, above is that little place where he sets the flowers in the movie.

This was one of the highlights of the trip. as I have mentioned about 101 times already....tat is my favorite movie!!! Our walk was followed by breakfast on the terrace of Hotel San Luca, then a demo by our instructor extraordinaire Joan Fullerton.



 We then split up and headed into the streets of Cortona to paint or photograph whatever our hearts desired. I ended up with Joan, Marian Sommers and Caroly Wiley, perched on a balcony overlooking the main Piazza (my favorite place in the town).

Joan Fullerton and Marian Sommers/ we are perched up here..

overlooking the Piazza in the photo below.

Carol Wiley

This was my favorite moment in Cortona.....I painted a rather whimsical, very quick little study of the building to the right, which to the artists eye is out of perspective and pretty awful, but to me ...it's the most special piece I have ever painted because of where I was and what I was painting.

I don't have it here as I am writing this blog, it is at my gallery in my little watercolor journal, but I will share it later.

We walked through the winding little streets of town and I took 100's of photos of doorways and windows....below are a few.

Next trip I make, I will pay much more attention to the photos I take. I didn't want to take my big camera, so all of my photos are from mu iphone....but I was so caught up in the experience and just quickly capturing the moments that I did not position myself properly to take really beautiful images....most of them are just " on the fly)!!

And....many of my photos were accidentally on video--UGH!

We kept seeing this black cat all around town.

We sat next to this door and painted......I guess the locals are used to that??

We wondered what the red ribbon meant on this door...

Lots of green doors!

One of the older areas of town,people still live here - the insides we are told are completely renovated and modern.

Later in the day we also took a tour of the city with a guide.....there are so many images to share,so I will split this day into two posts and will share part two of day 2 in Cortona next!!!:)