The tower leading up to Cologne Cathedral’s tower is uniquely lit with multiple windows. Here is my take on the view up to the bells.
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The tower leading up to Cologne Cathedral’s tower is uniquely lit with multiple windows. Here is my take on the view up to the bells.
This is a fantasy grouping of the real Victorian houses just east of downtown Albany, and the rather prominent church just west of downtown.
The Saint Jost bell tower in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.
This is the cathedral in Trujillo, Spain, also known as “Our Lady of Peace.” I’ve painted her from the side, as a neighbor might walk to her. But she presides over Trujillo’s Plaza Mayor.
This is the Plaza Mayor in the village of Zahara, Cadiz Province, Spain. The village is one of the more picturesque pueblos blancos in Andulacia. The church I’ve painted is known as the Torre del Reloj (Yellow Tower), and it dominates the square.
San Martin de Trevjo is a sleepy mountain village in Extramadura, Spain. I spent a happy couple hours wandering among the half-timbered homes there.
We spent our last day in the Netherlands in Haarlem. Haarlem is just just under a half hour by train from Amsterdam, but feels like it’s miles away because where Amsterdam is large and lively, Haarlem is small and quiet.
The young women in the foreground were adding more chalk to a square already covered in graffiti. None of it was pictorial and all of it obviously washes off with each night’s rain.
Cesky Krumlov sits in a bend of Vltava River in the Czech Republic. It is a walkers town. And if you walk, you eventually cross the Vltava. All the bridges are charming and walkable.
This is Westminster Abbey as seen through the wrought iron work of the cloister. It is the view visitors now see just before they exit the abbey complex. But for hundreds of years it was the view seen by the monks on their way to services.
This painting has sold but you may still purchase a fine art print.
This is Lucca. It could be just about any narrow lane in the old part of a Tuscan city, but this particular lane is in Lucca. The bicyclist is appropriate, because Lucca is a bicyclist’s city. The old city wall around town has been paved as a broad street for pedestrians and cyclists, and everyone, natives and tourists alike seem to spend much of their time biking the wall. Down in the city, bikes are as common as at Oxford.
Built in the 1200s and located atop a 365 foot high mesa, Acoma Pueblo is one of the most spectacular of the nineteen modern pueblos of New Mexico. It looks like what it is, the home of the descendants of the Anasazi peoples of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. The San Estevan Del Rey Mission Church I’ve painted is a late comer to the pueblo, built between 1629 and 1641. The church was built by order of the Spanish government. Although it was built with slave labor, the Acoma people are proud of it, and did not destroy it during 1680 revolt against the Spanish. It is still a place of Christian worship today.
The building is made of sandstone and adobe, rather than adobe bricks. The result is sturdier than adobe, but when in need of plaster very rough looking. The stones were very much visible when we visited this last summer, though I’ve seen pictures of the Mission looking as smooth as any brick adobe building. I like the rough stones and I’ve done my best to give a sense of them here.
My painting is entirely poured (see a description of the pouring method here) from just four pigments: raw sienna, burnt sienna, quinacrididone rose, and dioxion purple. The hard edges caused by mask used for pouring and the limited palette, give the painting a raw graphic feel that reminds of seeing that massive building in the July heat.
This painting is sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
We visited the Cinque Terre or Five Lands in 2012. Clinging to the the cliffs about the Italian riviera, these charming wine and fishing villages are an Italian national park and a tourist magnet during the summer. I painted Monterrosso, the largest of these villages last year. This is Riomaggiore, the smallest of the Cinque Terre, and the first village many tourists see. It was the first village we visited. And yes we were charmed by it’s pocket sized harbor and steep narrow streets. But these first paintings are not of the houses on the harbor cliffs, but the vineyard hills.
These paintings have sold, but you may still purchase fine art prints here.
This is one of the twin clock tower spires of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. I love Saint Paul’s Cathedral though it is nothing like the Gothic Cathedrals I fell in love with on my first trip the England. Unlike England’s early cathedrals, Saint Paul’s was designed by a single man, Sir Christopher Wren and built over just thirty years. The result is a clean coherent building rather unlike the the quirky cathedrals I first admired.
Wren designed and saw built numerous churches in the vicinity to compliment and be complimented by the cathedral. But in the London Blitz practically the entire neighborhood was bombed and burned to the ground. The cathedral is now surrounded by modern offices. The Millennium Bridge now leads directly to it providing a very modern show case for Wren’s jewel.
This is Canterbury. I began with reference photos showing Canterbury Cathedral’s spires rising above the gate, but in the end I cut back to the gate itself. The gate is now the only approach for tourists, and the streets leading up to it are charming. But despite the Tudor buildings, it is modern. There are Starbucks and Subways. These tourist use smart phones and get their cash for ATMs. Rather than providing a refuge and a place to sleep for pilgrims, the cathedral charges a fee to tour the cathedral and view the place where Thomas a Becket was murdered.
Like the Arch of Titus below, this painting is primarily poured rather than painted with a brush. The result is rich color with a graphic feel.
This painting has sold, but you may purchase an art print.