Lost the rhythm

Next to last picture of pastel.

Pastel finished. If you look at both of them you will see little things I changed for the good of the painting. At some point reality is not so important. The green cross means a pharmacy. It is a modern touch, but it the reality of today. I took out some doors, made somethings overlap more, but all the change I made, I felt were for the good of the picture. I think the color on this picture is not as accurate, because I took it in the house.

Sunday and Saturday were both days out of the rhythm of CS life. On Sunday we worked on our paintings in the piazza, met up with Casper, who took ten chairs and drove with him to Gagliano Anterno. We walked all around the village, luckily small, took pictures and made notations on a google map of the town. Casper and Anja want to have a little tourist, but tasteful, map of the town. It is a beautiful town, but only 100 people live there. There is an incredible castle in perfect condidion, but it is in private hands and visitors aren’t allowed. You can buy a 200,000e apartment there. There are three churches, but you can only go in one. There is no where to eat or shop. The only establishment is a coffee/bar where the 25 men in the village hang out. There is a beautiful street lined with chestnut trees. It is spectacular and cool in the shade. By the time we were done I was happy it was a small town and glad that we had taken the time to walk around it. Casper arranged our tour so we would end up at Gail’s house. She made us a remarkable lunch and we stayed at the table about four hours. Her house has mosaic floors and a wonderful terrace that is on the east side of the house. At times I felt cool air blowing past me. Gagliano is higher than CS and across the valley. Again I am glad we chose to live in this town where there are places to walk to, a supermarket, bakeries and gelato. We had dinner after 9pm, in part because of the large lunch, but mainly because until the sun went down it was too hot.

Jim and I both finished painting/drawings this morning. I worked on mine four times. The drawing took up almost the entire first day and the next two times I quit when the sun was on me. Today I stayed with it and finished it. Since then we have been hanging around the house. When we walked in, after being downtown, the door fell off its bottom hinge. The hinges are plastered or cemented into the wall so it wasn’t easy to see what to do with a large hunk of cement lying on the floor, no wood to reattach the hinge to, and the door hanging by the top hinge. Jim went to ask Salvadore if the workmen at his house could help us, but Salvadore mixed up the cement himself and did it. It has not set yet, so we have been hanging around here, because the door is wide open. I decided to tackle the little room downstairs. The old paint was not too bad above about five feet. It is a tan color. I decided to paint white up to a line that matched the bottom of the windows. Then I got to scrub the floor. It is the grossest dirt. It is sticky and black and strings together like cotton candy or thin taffy. It has been fifteen years since it was cleaned. There seem to be some clouds building up behind the mountains. I am hopeful that they will at least block the sun. Next door the neighbors are cutting tile. They hope to be finished with the renovation in seven days. The men work hard all day on the job. It is easier to work inside where it is so cool than outside. That is why I painted walls all day. If we had a swimming hole life would be perfect. It seems too hot to be sitting at the beach. Instead we take cold baths. It’s ok.