"Sport of The Waves" 11x14 oil on linen canvas board
Back at my local beach painting while my husband and friends are surfing. I set my easel up close to to the surf to get the feeling of being in the water with them. So come paddle out there with me, I promise you won't get a mouth of of water and a bathing suit full of sand in this painting.
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After an eleven hour drive up the coast past San Francisco through vineyards and forest and Mendocino we arrive at the Pine Beach Inn in Fort Bragg. It is a wonderful beach that is great for divers, beach walking and to simply to absorb the beauty of nature all around you. I painted this in oil on a 12"x24" canvas while on the beach as the fog and mist lifted. The sky peaked through mist and lit up the wave to let us know that it is going to be a beautiful and peaceful day.
We have two remaining towns to explore on our third day in the Cinque Terre. We take the train to Riomaggiore. The train is packed with visitors that had just arrived, probably from La Spezia ( the gateway city) , but we are doing this tour backwards. You can't tell from the picture here, but it is a very steep climb up the street. There are lots of pricey souvenir shops with items that you can get in Florence for at least half the price. Gelato is still a good deal anywhere. So we stopped at bar and enjoyed people watching as we ate our delicious treats then we take a walk to the harbor and check out the only gallery. The last town that we visit is Manarola. It is a very small villiage that has some of the most beautiful deep water swimming places that I have ever seen right at the end of the town. I think this a free beach. We did not have our beach stuff with us as we knew that we would have to be back to our B and B and collect our luggage. We spend the last night of the Cinque Terre in La Spezia. I do not reccommend La Spezia at all. It is a dirty city, with pick pockets. I was mis-led by pictures on Pinterest that were probably mis-labled. The places to stay there are cheap for a reason! In retrospect I think we could of stayed the whole time in Rapallo and took the train to all the towns. ( no... I take that back we loved our place in Monterroso. ) My sister rented a beautiful little apartment near the Ponte Vecchio on the country side of town. Her apartment is surrounded by a church, art museum, two gardens, villas and a castle -fort. This is a great place to wind up my days in Tuscany. I spend three days here, one of which is spent at the Uffizi Gallery looking at some of my favorite old masters; Botticelli, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael and many others. Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in world and I got to explore it from many vantage points. On the last day in route to the airport I enjoy a light breakfast with my sister at this bar near the train and bus station. She will be continuing to live in Florece until September while she also travels to places like Milan, Rome, and the Almafi Coast.
Because of storms in 2011 the trails connecting the five towns have been washed out. The only trail open at this time is the trail from Vernazza to Corniglia. We take the train to Corniglia. Had we known that we would have to climb about seven flights of stairs to get from the train station to the road to town we may have done something different. After a nice lunch at a resturant near the trail head we head off on what is supposed to be an hour and a half walk. The views are spectacular. The trail is a mixture of steep stairs, and up and down rocky trails meadering through vineyards. Storm clouds come in and it rains a little, just enough to make the journey alittle cooler for us. We stop half way and paint so our hike is actually extended to four hours. Will post the painting later. We have two nights booked for Monterosso which for us is the gateway to the Cinque Terre ( five Towns) we carry our luggage down the long road above the beach through the tunnel echoing beautiful piano music as we enjoy the sights and sounds. Most of the beach is owned by private businesses marked by the color of beach chairs and umbrellas that you can rent for 15 Euros. You have to walk past all the matching umbrellas until you find the free beach with mis-matched umbrellas or the that is on the rocks. We walk through the town, past the church into the piazza through the arches and after a long climb up the hill, we arrive at our Bnb . They show us our room and give a set of keys for the the inside door, outside door and the electricity. Each morning we have a wonderful Italian breakfast with home made cakes, fresh fruit, yogurt and cheeses. Since it it is very crowded with tourists during the day, I go out at 6:00 Am to paint. Later in the day when it got really hot, I went for a swim at these rocks. I had to walk from the free beach at the end of the town to here. The water was very clear and refreshing but it did take two hours to get there, swim and walk back. It took two trains and seven hours to get from Nice to Ventimiglia then to Rapallo. Most of the coastline was lots of rocky beaches and distinct towns totally different from each other. We chose Rapallo because of it's proximity to Portifino since it has alway been my sister's dream to there. this photo is the view from our hotel balcony. Rapallo is more of a vacation destination for Italians. It really gets lively at night with music along the promanade until 11:00 Pm. I reccommend staying Rapallo, as Portofino is very expensive. The next Morning we take a boat to Fruitoso, Camogli and then Portifino. I took the opportunity to swim in this beautiful cove. It was quite luxurious to float there and look up at the small village surrounded by towering Italian Pines. Camogli is a small town with pastel and shell encrusted buildings overlooking the harbor. Portifino has the beautiful villas with cascading bouganvillas overlooking the water. It also has a nature walk above the town. This would be a great place to stay longer and paint if we had time.
On day eight we leave Tucany and fly to Nice . Our plan is to stay in Nice three nights then travel back along the Riviera back to Florence. I pack a smaller suit case with my art supplies for my checked bag and put the clothes in a back pack and have to carry the easel separately. Security does not like the easel and I am forced to pay 60 euros to check the easel or ditch it altogether. I pay. My sister found this beautiful home owned by Jonell and Werner on Air Bnb.com They give us a beautiful room and are fabulous hosts. It also helps that my sister is fluent in French. We explore Nice, the beach, flower market and take a train to Cagnes Sur Mer to find the Renior home and studio only to find that it is closed until after we leave. So we go to the old villiage. It takes the whole day to walk and take the trains. The next day we explore the spectacular Rothchild Villa and Monaco. No time to paint. The beaches here are rocky with some imported sand. You can rent a space on the beach for 12 Euros. We dip our feet in the water then leave. For more stories on this see:http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gretchenart/1/1373890777/tpod.html Day six in San Michele. The internet connection here does not work very well for my sister, too many dropped calls on the internet phone and bumps off the internet by multiple users in the bulding. Lisa (The manager) of the BNB finds a friend in Florence that will rent to my sister for the rest of her stay. ( 2 more months) Her boss offers vacation time up until July 24. So this will be our last night in San Michele. The photo here is showing the breakfast table that has been set up for the "B and B" guests that have just arrived. At $30. a night we are just B customers. The owner opens the front doors of the church at 6am and is surprised to me me in there, but tommorow will be the last morning I will be in the church. I decide to take an early walk around the grounds and run into Robert who is another long term guest from the USA who also owns property in Hong Kong and is re-building the villa across the street. He is so happy to give a tour of his project. He asks me where we are planning to go today. I told him about the lovely hill town called Montepulciano. He tells me that Sienna would be better,"No one should leave Tuscany without seeing Sienna ' he says. My sister and I both read the book by Jennifer Criswell called "At Least you're in Tuscany." We both have visions of Montepulciano and fantacies that maybe we would run into Jennifer while having gelato, but we get talked out of it by some guy. So were off to Sienna. Ms Tomy does a good job getting us to Sienna by 9:00 am. Sienna is actually a huge walled city. Each neighborhood has it's own flag. This flag in the photo here is for the "Duck" town. After two hours of walking up hill and seeing the Duomo, plaza and a million tourists we decide to leave. My sister is so happy when we find the duck flag again as we make our exit. We get back on the highway pass some funny signs like Pongibonzi and laugh and wonder why we see that sign every time we go somewhere. It's day seven and I want to see another town in Chianti. Off we go to Radda. Radda is the prettiest and most flowerful town so far. We did not paint here, but took a lot of photos for future paintings. Being a small town and we were there early, My sister informs me that we have time for another town before she has to be back for work. So... were off to Poggibonzi. After 2 hours of driving through the hills with Ms Tomy as our guide we arrive at Poggibonzi only to discover that it is city probably built in 1946. We get cold lazagna, cheese and nutella at a deli and eat it in a park with dead grass. We get back on the highway and I notice a castle in the distance. So we drive there to see what it is. It turns out to be a large villa in San Donato that was made into a hotel. Down the street there is a restaurant made out of someone's house. called "Mi Casa" My sister feels that we need to get a real lunch. She has some better photos of the inside. My sister goes back to work and I paint the cellar next to the picnic area as a whole table full of people from South Africa, England and Austalia watch. Will post abetter photo later. to be continued.... Gobind's Painting tour in Italy 2013 Ater two days of travel I arrive at the Florence (Firenze) airport to be picked up by my sister who is living in Italy. She has an internet and phone research job that allows her to live anywhere. So she has invited me to come stay with her. She is proud of herself for riding two buses and then renting a car and figuring out how to get into the airport. As soon as I get in to the car I have to be the navigator with Ms Tomy the GPS to get us out of the airport and through the unnamed back country roads to a small hill town of ten houses called San Michele. My sister rented "The Birdhouse apartment from Airbnb. It is actually a convent built in the 1100's. We decide to go out for our first meal at a near by camp ground for dinner. The church where I do my daily yoga and meditation at 4 Am. Inspite of Jet lag I decide to go on our first jouney to Greve and Montefiralle. Ms Tomy gives good directions that we mis-interpret and go down the wrong tunnel on the toll highway. She re-configures and puts us on small roads instead. It takes two hours to get to Greve. It happens to be market day I find a beautiful Tuscan table cloth, and a linen blouse and we enjoy watermelon on a park bench. Then we set out for Montefirealle. Unfortunately Ms Tomy can't figure it out and we end up back in Greve two more times so we change our our itineray to Castelina where we tour the town and paint our first paintings. On day three I realize that the jet lag has caught up with me so we stay in San Michele. My sister finishes her report for work and I walk up the street to paint. On day four we take the bus to Florence. No painting this day but lots of inspiration at the Piti Palace. (sorry no photos allowed there) On day five my sister informs me that she has conference call with clients so we have to be back from San Giminano by 3:30. Which means that we have to leave there by 1:30 , we were lucky and arrive in San Giminano at 8:00am. We saw the beautiful church there and after lunch, lots of photos and geleto we have to go. Back in San Michele in time for my sister to start work. So I walk up to another place and paint. I found a spot off the narrow road at the top of a driveway to a beautiful country home and olive orchard. will post days 6-10 later This Saturday! I will be painting in this. Plein Air Competition, June 15 2:30-3:30Pm. Historic San Clemente comes alive through the eyes of competing plein air artists who “paint San Clemente” and the beauty of this “Spanish Village by the Sea.” The public is invited to view the artists’ progress as they paint each day throughout the community. I'll be down on the Beach come on by and say hi! |
Gobind BoyesSeascape Painter |