Jim's Drawings

It is so embarrassing that I have not posted any of Jim's drawings. My only excuse is that I am taking photos of mine while I am doing them and he hides his away after barely showing them to me. So here they are:

CVS

Castel di Ieri

Castel di Ieri

CVS

Gagliano from CVS

CVS from Via Sotto Castel

CVS earthquake zone

One of CVS's castels

Partee in Gagliano

 Jim at the party when it is just getting started. The steps to this terrace were like a ladder, not so bad going up, but scarey going down.

 The couple to the right with the baby are the people that helped us buy our house. They are returning to Denmark this week. Jim is in the back. I was the only person, besides an Italian woman who did not speak or understand Danish. She and I talked. Her husband is going to take my class.











It is irresistible to take pictures of the view from terraces
in Gagliano. This is the church after sunset. It was COOL. People claimed to actually be cold. Jim and I were so happy.

Painting, food, friends

We went out painting early. Sadly I have painted everything I can find by the people who make us coffee everyday. Today they also gave us a waffle like cookie that is a specialty of CVS.

A friend had made them that day. The mayor and his wife came by and were impressed.
















After that, Jim went to the grocery store and I went to draw the church. It is hard to find a spot with shade where I won't get run over and the view is good, but we shall see. Tonight we go to a party. More on that tomorrow.









 Last night's dinner: chicken soup with homemade croutons, salad and watermelon.

Finally I have some good pictures of our neighbors.

Salvatore and Jim drinking Orange Fanta

Enrica and me

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.

IKEA Road Trip

Yesterday we went to IKEA!! Karin, Bjarne, Jim and I left after the Friday market: the only reason to visit Roma, although probably not high on most tourist lists. We went over the mountains across the valley from us by the windmills. They are so beautiful: Caldor mobiles appearing and disappearing over the horizon, casting long moving shadows. What is not to like?? It was our lucky day. We got two Pello chairs. (like Paong only half the price, more metal less wood) Finally, comfortable chairs. We got plastic containers to keep food in the fridge, (more than one kind of granita at a time), more frames and two lights for our guests to be able to read in bed. Oh right, no more guests this year. Next year someone will be able to read in bed, I hope. We had meatballs for lunch and it was self serve lingonberry sauce. Mmmm. Lingonberry and meatballs. 

Karin & Bjarne

Toilet flusher at IKEA...big water, little water

We went to Avazano to get Bjarne a new pool for his deck.  Avazano is a common place for people to take a bus from Roma and then have a friend pick them up.  It is a big town, 12,000 people or so, with all the traffic and shopping opportunities that implies. It reminded me of the outskirts of San Sepolcro in Tuscano. There was a giant store, Obi, like home depot, complete with the orange color. They had wood stoves and ceiling fans and lots of other stuff the local hardware store cannot stock.

 It was pretty exciting, but I am glad we don’t live in such a big town or have so many places like that to shop. There is no choice for us, but to support local business. We went over the mountains a way Jim and I had not been before. We went east or west of Mt. Sirento instead of west or east. It is confusing, because the road twists around so many hairpin curves. We went close to the big, square, castel we can see from the highway from Roma. I want to stop and look at it next time.  We had an amazing view of Rocca de Mezza with the Conolla Grande (giant ice cream 


cone) mountain in the background. Beside Mt. Etna, this is the largest mountain south of the Alps. It is where the Italians imprisoned Mussolini. Hitler rescued him from there. I took some photos, but they are pathetic in showing the amazing grandeur of the scene. We stopped for caffe, which was great. It is so nice to not have to know the best coffee place. There are some that are better or have more ambiance, but they are all better than we are used to. It was a most satisfactory day. 

Ikea swagg

PELLO Chair & Pillow with a BIRD on it

Last night, while interneting, we ran into the Mayor and he asked us to have our paintings in the Castelvecchio celebrations in August. We said ok, va bene, whatever. (MA NO, we said, “Si, perfecto!!) We had been hoping someone would ask. Now we need to find out from whom we can get the details. He also wanted to know when we would get our residency like the Danes. That was also exciting. If we had residency we could be here longer than 90 days, own a car and pay less property tax, but it is harder for Americans than Europeans. We have no pension and no health care to transfer to Italy. Both sets of our Danish friends had been coming five years before they decided to change their residency. This will be their first complete year here. We will wait for their report of the winter. It may be too lonely. It is certainly the talk of the town that the DANES have decided to get residency. People are proud. So far, there has been no summer in Denmark, so it is surprising more Danes aren’t here. I think there are three couples in Castelvecchio at the moment. I saw one of the women way up by the ruins in her bikini. That was surprising, but so Danish. I do not expect to see Italian women in their bikinis except at the beach. If you are a widow do you also wear a black swim suit? Mine is black but it does have pink spots. Mine is the only one piece on the beach. 

Started

Not finished

Today I was painting in Vilma and Gioni’s tiny courtyard. Jim was up around the corner. Vilma brought out caffe for both of us and delivered Jim’s to him. They are the people with the amazing hacienda like house. Jim said it was his favorite painting place where beautiful women bring him coffee. Two walls of the courtyard are part of one of the destroyed castels. He has used scaffolding to prop up the walls. I had thought I knew what I wanted to paint, but Jim got me to turn around and look the other way and it was a great scene. I had brought a skinny piece of paper and it was just right, although how I will frame it, I do not know.  

Tonight I am going with Regina, she is picking me up at 5pm, to the Wayne University of Detroit’s opening ceremony for their summer school in Gagliano. At first I said no, but then I thought why would I do that? So I said yes. She is going to drive from Gagliano in her car to pick me up. Jim stuck with no. Last year we went to the closing ceremony and it went on for HOURS and it was so BORING. Speeches and more speeches thanking everyone over and over. But hey, never say no. Surely it can’t go past 9pm, because people have to eat dinner. I will take my sketch pad. 

Two paintings

These are the pictures I have done for the last two days. I hope you like them more than I do. I feel like my career is over. Probably not, but that is how it feels. The sky is so strange today. It is not the usual towering clouds that build up many days. It is a weird color and reminds me of tornadoes. That seems doubtful.  A friend is taking us to IKEA tomorrow so it is possible that meatballs and comfortable chairs are in our future!!

Not exactly Gnomes

Not exactly gnomes, but close

Inset in Castel gate Gagliano

Inset over gate to Castel Gagliano

Waterspout minus water or spout

Keystone with coat of arms

Silo near Gagliano

Crows made of black plastic guard tomatoes

It is only 11:15, but already it has been an interesting day. We went to have caffe in the piazza so that we could proceed from there to the area up by San Giovanna, the biggest church here, closed since the earthquake, to do some drawing. While we were working a man came by back and forth. We had seen him and his wife around town. It turns out they live in a house that we have always wanted to go in.

Jim gave the man his drawing and he invited us in to have caffe.  From the outside, their house looks like it belongs in California. The important thing to remember is that California has copied Italy. There are rusted farming implements hanging on the outside, wrought iron window coverings and light fixtures. In many places the stucco has been rubbed off to expose ancient stones, some with carvings. Inside is an exposed stone from the second century. The inside is exactly what you think of when you hear, “hacienda”. The furniture was his and her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. It is old wood with the patina of long years of being touched. There were old photos on the walls of their family houses before the earthquake. I think it was his mother’s house that fell off the cliff by the castel. I think he showed me a photo taken right beside our house with a woman carrying a large box on her head. Their house has a little side area with several arches. It is always in the shade and I have admired it these two years. Now I have permission to paint there!  The “brave gnome above the earthquake zone” is on one of their balconies. I do not think they were here last summer, but this year I see them everywhere. He is from Castelvecchio and she is from Milano. They spend half their time in each place.

Ok, now for the caffe. She says it is easy. We have our doubts. She takes a little of the first caffe out of the pot and stirs it vigorously with sugar. After the caffe is poured, she adds a little of that on top. It is a brown cream. It looks like all the pictures on the  packages of caffe. It was great. Now we have something new to try. Giogni wanted us to go upstairs on the incredibly steep, circular stairway he had made. Going up was ok, but coming down was scary. They have three bedrooms upstairs and he also took us out on to the balcony. It overlooks a place we painted last year. Last, we went into the basement. It is 20c there and it is where they eat lunch on hot days.

Today is not too hot yet and the sky is bright blue, but it is supposed to be wicked hot for a few more days. First we were taken over the river sticks and not the Minotaur has us. (this is what the Italians say)