More from Rome Nights

Rome Nights II - oil on canvas - 24" x 18"

This one is all about mood, that feeling of strolling  glorious piazza's on sultry warm evenings. It brought back heaps of memories while I was painting it. You could nearly always hear accordian music drifting along in the night air. When dining at outdoor cafe's,  street vendors come right up to your table to try to sell their rose's.  It's a little intrusive, so we didn't buy any that way.  There were a lot of street vendors in the piazza's at night.  Dave bought some slingshot laser rockets from one guy. Back at home, they were a hit outside after Thanksgiving dinner around our campfire in the evening.  One thing I loved about Rome was trying different food, it seems every outdoor cafe is a gourmet's delight.  We didn't hit a bad one the whole time we were there.  Without a doubt, the pasta and the pizza is the MOST devine.  My favourite is the Napoli pizza, just tomatoes, cheese and anchovies on a super thin crust cooked in a wood fire oven. yum!

Sunday back and forth on the easle

I'm working on two paintings concurrently from my Rome experience.  I've been going back and forth between them a lot, changing compositions and restating passages.  I thought I'd post their progress, as it's a slow painting process.  My notion is to express a mood of delight in the city; I'm not at all interested in actually recording landmarks.  The cafe culture at night was especially fabulous.  That's what these two paintings are going to be about...the coffee,accordian and gelato, which make up the forgrounds, should get the idea across.  You can see the picture of the accordian (to the left of the easle) which I'm using as a painting resource. That's because, not being very musical, I dont actually know what an accordian really looks like.  I had a great photo I took of an accordian player one evening, that I initially used, but in the end, I didn't like the addition of the figure.  It seemed to take the focus off the main idea...so after repainting him twice, I decided to scrape him off. That's when I decided to add a giant accordian instead. I think it will work.  My gut feels happier about it, so that's usually a good sign.