Mist at Twilight, 19" x 27", oil

This work is from a lovely little town named Ascoli Piceno in le Marche. Le Marche is the region you come to as you go from here in Umbria, cross over the Monti Sibillini, and head to the Adriatic Sea. You have beautifully snowy mountains on one side of you and the sea just a few km on the other. Ascoli was wonderfully friendly, and a place we would like to visit again on a warmer day.

I have not had a chance to paint much of the scenery from Le Marche because it was very rainy most of our trip through. There will be studio works to come though, as this was the most different terrain we have seen in Italy. You'll just have to wait for those.

Silver Lining, 19x27, oil

It had been so dark and stormy all day long. Just as we drove around to the "other" side of Assisi (the one fewer tourists ever visit), the sun came out and illuminated Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Paolo's Bano, 6x8, oil, plein air

Standing here seriously trying to capture the feel and splash of these waves, when Paolo, a strapping young Italian man, decides he would prefer I pay attention to his bath in the Adriatic. Not to be distracted, I managed a simple 6x8 sketch before he had insisted on coming over and giving me his phone number. It seems in southern Italy, if a man has a "machina" (car), he assumes you will be interested in most any service he may be offering. My friend Toni took his picture (after he put his tight underwear back on). I won't post that here. Just so glad she was with me! Dio mio.

Villa de Pazzi, 10x8, oil, plein air

Entrance to a villa here in Eggi. Part of the grounds contains an old, de-consecrated church. I keep thinking if I stand outside the walls long enough, either I'll get the nerve to ring the bell or someone will come out and invite me inside. If only I knew just a little more Italian, I'd definitely ring the bell. You just really look pretty stupid ringing a bell and then having nothing to say when someone answers the door. Mark is going to have to go down there with me and make this happen!

Impression of the Past, 9.5 x 12, oil, plein air

It's nothing to find old pieces of olive presses just lying around. These old pieces were in the yard of an old monastery that has been closed for a couple of hundred years or so. The caretaker came by to make certain I wasn't taking any olives from the trees.

No Packages Delivered Beyond #56, 8x6, oil

Last October, my friend Cindy Helms sent me an oversized envelope with a panel-roo and some business cards in it. It has yet to arrive. It has floated around Puglia and perhaps even made it to Perugia once, but never to me. One day a package delivery man told me that he simply does not deliver past #56. The streets are too narrow, he indicated with his hand signals. In my limited Italian understood what he said, and I communicated back asking how I am to get the package. He said he would leave it at the local bar the next day. Problem is, the package guy comes early in the morning and our local bar doesn't open until late at night. Allora, the package has come and gone many times between the Adriatic coast and Umbria. Seems it will just sit forever somewhere and never find me. If only I had known to rent a house that was before the end of the line! No one has a clue where the package is now. Here is a painting of door #56.