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"Three Luccan Towers" (17 x 19 watercolor) available
Another Italian painting, this time of Lucca. The view is from a window in yet a fourth tower. I will have to paint the tower we climbed. The oak trees growing from it’s roof give it a surreal feel.
Village Stairs (19 x 12 watercolor) SOLD
This is a back “street” in Riomaggiore where the streets are not only likely to be too small for cars, but may include staircases. I loved the light at the end of the tunnel effect and the contract between the brightly painted wall and the natural stone stairs. The woman was both beautiful and big.
This painting has sold, but you can still purchase a fine art print.
Lucca Cafe, (watercolor 13 x 17) Sold
Cafe in Lucca, Italy, just before lunch.
Italian Heat is not my first attempt at that painting. It is the second. I made several mistakes with the first painting, most of them having to to with composition. I left too many people from my reference photos in the image, and that took away from the real subject, the biking couple at the end of the street. Having reached the conclusion that the painting was a failure, I played around with photos the spoiled painting before sketching out the second version which ended up in the blog entry below.
That left me with a poor complicated painting with great color but no real focus. So I set the failed painting aside for a while. Then a few weeks later, I got out the mat corners (“L” shaped pieces of mat board used for visual cropping) and singled out the two bicyclists. The result is Florence Bikers.
Florence Bikers (9 x 16 watercolor) SOLD
Looking at the remainder on the contained yet another painting:
Three Italians, (9 x 21 watercolor) sold
Both paintings have sold, but prints are still available. fine art print.
Italian Heat (watercolor 15 x 22) SOLD
We visited Florence in the heat of summer. The shady narrow streets opening up into white hot plazas continues to fascinate me. Couples biking over the rough stone streets had their own heat.
This painting sold but you may still purchase a fine art print.
Top of Milan (watercolor 14 x 22) SOLD
When we Armitages travel, we climb things–towers, monuments, mountains, cathedrals, arches– we generally go up for the purpose of looking down. We are never disappointed. We weren’t disappointed in Milan. But the Milan Cathedral rooftop is different. The rooftop itself is an amazing place to be. It would be an amazing place were it on the ground floor. Here is my first painting of the marble forest that lives atop the Milan Duomo.
Bike Lucca (watercolor 16 x 21) available
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.
An Italian Jewel (16 x 23 watercolor) SOLD
Riomaggiore is built on the cliffs above it’s harbor, rising chaotically up in a happy clutter of homes. The effect is charming whether seen from the harbor looking up or from the narrow streets looking down. The final shape of the village looks like a jewel set into the hills.
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print here.
Riomaggiore Hillside (16 x 22 watercolor) SOLD
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.
A Slice of Riomaggiore (10 x 12 watercolor) SOLD
These paintings have sold, but you may still purchase fine art prints here.
Late Afternoon Florence (13 x 22 watercolor) available
Florence is worth visiting just to walk the streets. The twisting turning little alleys are endlessly fascinating. The light pours through in dramatic shafts between the buildings spotlighting slivers of streets and buildings.
Waiting Bike (13 x 19 watercolor) SOLD
This painting has sold, but you may still purchase a fine art print.
Monterosso Cafe (watercolor 16 x 22) SOLD
The Cinque Terre, or five lands do not have much in the way of tourist sites. They are the tourist site. The five coast hugging Italian villages feature brightly colored townhouses, residential streets made up of nothing more than a flight of stairs, beautiful coastal trails, and tight picturesque beaches. In July of last year they were also hot as blazes and ought to have been uncomfortable, but the narrow shady streets, and cool ocean made up for the heat. Oh, and there was gelato too, lots of handmade gelato.
We visited the four villages actually on the coast, and dipped our toes in the water at more the one beach. We also climbed innumerable stairs just for the fun of climbing and looking down. This painting is of Monterosso, the largest of the five, and the one with the widest flattest beaches. We stopped to sample the gelato at the cafe. We ate it while watching our girls play in the warm surf.
