Italy - Here I come!

I'll be on my first European painting trip, leaving Sept. 16th.!

I'm up to my eyebrows getting ready--trying to stay within the weight limit for baggage is very tricky.  I've had lots of help from online friends and now all I have to do is get there and PAINT.  We are a group of about 25, including the instructor, Peggy Egli of Florida.  There will be tours and cooking demonstrations and gormet food in this 450 yr renovated farm house. 

I hope I'll have lots of good stories to tell when I return AND lots of paintings.

Isle of Shoals - Star Island Retreat - Cape Ann Artists

Eight of us spent three days on Star Island painting and having a good time.  The summer's heat continued as the hurricane was approaching.  The storm fizzled but we witnessed some boarding-up of the windows and some evacuation of the people on island.  We suffered through the "rules" and each had one (1) hot shower!  It's a beautiful place and very primitive and restful.  Star Island, Isle of Shoals

Don Mosher, Alan Wallack, Ivan Kamalic, Bonnie Sylvester, Jude Abbe, Karen Berger, Lynn Murray and I completed a number of paintings, slept well, got a lot of sun, and ate together at the old hotel.  We shared ideas and I had a wonderful time.  I learned about extra-long handled (although not as long as the European version) plein-air brushes from Ivan and have ordered some to try out on my next painting adventure.

I took close to 300 photos and some of them are gorgeous!  I'll have many that should motivate me to paint a few more studies and sketches and hopefully come up with a few good paintings--maybe even a series.  I prefer painting scenes with less blue so perhaps water scenes are not my thing.