late night

I need to sleep. Driving around late at night to connect Kiwi historians with Italian historians and trying to find a tiny white chapel in the dark makes for a huge headache today.

Next time I need better night-time instructions; why couldn't the landmark have been the garage with the lights on?

prototype painting

the experimental work progressed well yesterday. Photos later...

Painting in watercolour involves painting "back to front" or "inside out". Painting in acrylic or oil involves a completely different technique. Acrylics may also be used as watercolours, the difference being largely that once they have dried they are permanent, nothing can be changed. If you know your watercolour paints well and choose wisely then things can be changed quite effectively even after they have dried. I prefer to use staining colours, so must also think well before I apply them!

What I set out to do yesterday was to find a way of combining the two techniques so that I had the fluidity and mystery of the watercolours for the olive trees, and the brilliance and light for the foreground poppies, but the substance of the oil or acrylic to hold the work mounted on canvas for my local clients. Here works on paper are not highly desirable because of the damp in the stone houses.

I am close to achieving it. The tricky part is the transition from one mode of painting to another, from washes and glazes to thick layers of paint. Equally tricky and for now more important is remembering which paint is which, and not using my precious watercolour brushes in the acrylics. I have put Sabina away now, she did her part in the early stages of the painting. An unnoticed "accidental brush" with acrylic paint would destroy her.

Now to find a healthy varnish...

sometimes

Sometimes you choose to do something difficult. You spend a long time thinking about it, rehearsing it in your mind, trying to find a better way.

How do you decide what is the right thing to so? Do you weigh up the odds of your words being accepted in the spirit in which they are given? Do you avoid the hard issue?

I have been weighing up cultural differences, wondering if I am over-reacting. I have gone over every possible scenario. It is time to take a huge risk and express an opinion. I will be "damned if I do, and damned if I don't".

If I say what I want to say, I will be bringing an unpleasant truth into the open. I may not be believed. It could be that what is upsetting me is actually quite acceptable to the other parties.

If I don't, I will have to live with the fact that I did not do my best to bring truth into the light. I would rather be damned for doing what I believe is right than for doing nothing.

Who said that life was easy?

finito!

it was always a possibility

another festa

Today (Monday, it is not Sunday despite the date above) is a public holiday, but I took my holiday yesterday.

Picture a long table, 15 people seated around it, and Italian food and wine.

I chatted happily as the meal was prepared.

I joined the discussion about the antipasto.

I added my compliments and comments about the primi piatti.

I ate the secondo but didn't say quite so much.

I compared notes with my neighbour about the contorni.

I commented briefly on the vino.

I quietly sampled the cheeses.

I was mute as I drooled over the pineapple.

By the coffee I don't think I understood a word of the conversation.

???

It just goes to show that if you eat too much your brain stops working!


*****

Today we paint, Zacchi and I. Italy has gone to the beach. We have work to do!

Sunday morning...

Today Zacchi waited for Kay to pick him up. They went early in the morning, but all the scary dogs were still there. This time Kay held the lead tightly. All was well in Zacchi land.

There may not be so many posts for the next two weeks, we are staying in another house for a while.

Kay has to paint, said Zacchi. No computer for Kay.

Darn it! said Kay. But the other house does have good light and fewer distractions for a painter...