A Day in the Life

Waiting for a ride

Yesterday morning a woman that lives in Gagliano was in the coffee shop with us. She asked us if we would like to go to the opening ceremonies of the Wayne University, Detroit in Abruzzo session. She came to pick us up at 5pm as promised. Her brother was with her and they were driving an Alfa. They explained that he had arrived unexpectedly and that they would not be going to the ceremony, but we could walk back to their house after and they would take us home. After some thought we decided that we did not want to go to the ceremony (blah blah blah), and were able to explain that we really were only interested in getting together with her. We went to her house which is on the edge of Gagliano overlooking the valley and Castelvecchio.

 It was beautiful: see gnome photo. She took us upstairs in her house and she had an amazing collection of African art including seven huge elephant tusks. Some were carved and some were plain. I have never seen anything like it. I can hardly imagine how large the animals must have been and it is sad. She is Belgium and her father worked in the Belgium Congo in the 50’s and 60’s. Ivory was not illegal then, but I am guessing you would not be able to take it out of Italy unless you could prove how old it is. This woman speaks Flemish, French, Italian and English. She is married to an Italian and has a son in
Co nect ti cut, two daughters in Austria and one in Rome. She also has a house in Pescara near the beach where she lives in the winter. She does not like the beach in summer because of all the people. She is thinking of building a swimming pool next summer and Jim assured her he was her new best friend. She has a good sense of humor and I liked her.

Finished painting started Friday

It seems like a long day already. Last night it did not cool down. This morning it was breezing and all Italians agreed that it was going to be “fresco, non caldo”. The high was estimated to be 27c. This would be good. At some point it is going to be cold at night and I can’t wait.

We skipped coffee at home, because it has been, frankly, so bad. I don’t know what we are going to do to have good coffee at home. But the coffee was great downtown so at least there is an option and 1E for 2 tablespoons of coffee is a good deal. We walked up to the same people’s house where we have been painting the last few days. She made us coffee and a cookie so it all worked out.

Today and yesterday were very difficult scenes to draw. I was gratified when I took photos of the scene, that my drawings were so accurate. The two days before that I was unhappy with everything about my work. I have been lurking in dark alleyways so there is very little light on my scenes. It is always harder to create form without light and shadow and I am concerned that paintings my painting look to dark inside the house. I may do a little work on them indoors.

Drawing

First layer of color

The real thing

The light is pretty dim in our house and putting glass on a pastel darkens it a little more. It is so bright outside that even with my easel in the shade and tipped forward, I can not begin to make it an environment like indoors. I am painting with my glasses that tint in the sunlight and that may be the problem, but if I don’t wear them my eyes hurt.

Where I have been painting the last few days

Jim standing in my picture

Jim is making lunch. We get pizza with tomatoes (pizza rosa) that has been cooked in a wood fired oven. Jim adds fresh mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, garlic and what they call oregano here, but is nothing like what we consider oregano. He heats it on the grillino, little grill, and we have it with a fresh insalata mista, which means mixed salad. I read that you have to be careful if you order a grigliata mista, because it could have any kind or part of meat in it. Someone like me would probably be unpleasantly surprised. We will probably have watermelon for dessert.

The Commune has added another compost pick up day because it is so hot. We missed that as well. Monday is the next compost day and we may stand out there and hand it to the guys. I have to talk to my neighbor about putting it in front of her house since it was their car that hid it from view.