Last piece of Wallis paper

My easel and our bag of supplies are just to the right of the vegetation. After we finished drawing, we went up as high as we could get and looked into earthquake damaged houses. We were a long way up into the village. It was very sad, but also interesting, because they could be such beautiful places to live.

Pastel finished today. The dark square shapes are bolts put into the buildings after the 1915 earthquake.

Jim's drawing of the same spot.

Earthquake aftermath

These are some amazing pictures of how the buildings are being held together while waiting for repair after the earth quake three years ago.

See the cable holding the house together?

The work that has already gone in to preserving the buildings is monumental.

We got Mail!!

Our first mail from the Stati Uniti

Garden picture done on black sand paper.

Two more pastels done on black sandpaper.

My next to last piece of Wallis paper.

Rock out

The Band.

The setting.

The happening scene at Al'Kaffe.

Salvatore at work

Salvatore framing in his new door with tile and mortar. No wood here.

Today is so foggy we can’t see beyond across the street. No painting for me. The gardener liked the garden painting and now has told me where she wants me to do the next one. The good news is that they gave us a big bag of, wait for it, zucchini!! Also their only red tomatoes, lettuce and a cuke. See I can support myself here. She said that they would invite us over for a cook out in their garden soon. This area was a total wasteland and in five months they have transformed it into a garden. I can’t even imagine the money and work that has gone into this and they are so happy with it.

Our neighbors got their new windows and doors installed yesterday. When you have so few windows in a house you can go all out. We have two windows and three doors. They have screens. Some day we might have a door with a screen. The old doors are beautiful, but they are like old windows, nice to look at, hard to use.

Last night was amazing. We went to a concert in the Piazza of San Francesco d Assisi. So here is this rock and roll, jazz band playing their hearts out in the shadow of the church. The audience is mostly sitting there with their arms folded across their chests. What, they thought they were in church? People of all ages were there and it was loud. We left at 11 and there was no end in sight. As we walked through the piazza, where we have caffe, it was packed with people and it was a better place to hear the band. All of the usual guys were lined up at al’Kaffe and the hipsters were under the Komodo tent.
As we walked home the music stayed with us, until we turned a corner and the howling of the dogs took over.

Black velvet paintings

I can’t believe it is almost August. The time has slipped away in cups of coffee, cloud watching, meeting new people, unabashed nosiness peering down from our balcony and pastels. A few days ago, one of our neighbors stopped her car by me, in the line of traffic and had her English speaking friends tell me it would be ok if I wanted to paint in her garden. It is a very nice garden, home of most of the gnomes of Castelvecchio, but it is not really somewhere I would chose to paint. Yesterday she wanted to know WHY I hadn’t painted her garden and WHEN I was going to do it. I said tomorrow or the day after. This is an acceptable answer. So today I slunk around taking pictures through the fence. They have put up a locked gate so I can’t go in. I sat here on the terrace and did manage to finish one of her garden. I hate to show it to her. If she doesn’t like it I am quite sure she will tell me.

It is another magic cloud day with rain in different parts of the valley. I am so chilly that I am wearing a long sleeved shirt. I am going to do some more black sand paper terrace paintings of clouds. It would be a big risk to take my stuff and go anywhere with threats of rain from so many directions at once.

Dinner with the Danes was a big success. They loved Jim’s burgers and fries. Today I ate the pear I had drawn and it was the best pear I have ever eaten. How can this be every time? Jim and I realized that we cook fruit so often because it isn’t hat good, but I see no reason to ever cook fruit here. We haven’t tried apples yet, because they are not in season and Vermont has the best apples ever. I am sure it is the difference between eating locally and eating food that is shipped from other countries.

Picture from Castelvecchio

This is the name of the man who's house this was. It is one of the supports for the kitchen balcony. Andrea Salutori

Laundry. We are washing by hand and it is creepy how dirty our clothes are.


Earthquake restoration: next 3 photos.