I worked all day yesterday on my Sanguine drawing. I put the final touches on her this morning. I must say that I am rather pleased. I used a fixatives spray on the finished drawing to set the chalk and keep it from rubbing off. I have a work in progress photo that I will post on facebook. I will get a final photo on Monday and post that. You can see the mid-range progress to my final.
Next week I start my oil painting class. Today I got to pick from a pile of photos what I want to paint. My instructor doesn’t have a feel for what I want to paint nor the style I want to paint in. My topic will help determine that. As most of you know, I am not a detail painter. I am a loose, painterly painter. I chose a child in a sun hat and we decide that I will paint her mostly with a pallet knife. Today, I render my drawing on the canvas so that I am ready to start next week. I will post the drawing on my facebook page.
We only have a morning session on Fridays. The school has set up a Secrets of Florence tour for all the students for the afternoon. Our tour guides takes us all over the City of Florence and shows us things that most people don’t know, hear or read about. For example, one of the things she shows us is a drawing carved into the side of the building by Michelangelo. Evidently there was a delay on his start of the David because they couldn’t decide where it was going to be located. During this period of time he was bored and while waiting he carved one of the vagrants who was nearby into the stone of the building.
There are only 4 of us from our school on the tour today. Gaia from Amsterdam. She just had a birthday this week and turned 20. Camilla from Brussels who is 18. They share an apartment together. They met at class and eventually got a place together. Gaia is studying here because the art schools in Amsterdam don’t offer classes in the masters style. The focus in Amsterdam art schools is on graphic/contemporary design. Although that is probably where her career will take her, she wants to learn more about renaissance art. Gaia has been here for 6 months and she will stay until July. Camilla has been here nearly 6 months as well. She is here killing time before she starts college in Belguim. She leaves in 2 weeks. And then David who came here from the Ukraine where he was a gymnastics coach. His Visa expired and he came here until he could get his Visa sorted out. He had always been interested in art and this seemed like a good way to spend his time. He is 43 years old and used to live and teach gymnastics in Santa Barbara. With his Visa sorted out, he will leave to go back to the Ukraine in 3 weeks time.
After our tour we all decided to go to a bistro and have a beer and get to know each other a little better. It was fun hanging out with them. We all started sharing our life stories and we revealed our ages. They were surprised at my age. I told them that I had a son older than David. It was so funny because Gaia blurted out…Oh my Cindy you, could be my Mom, and David could be my father. And there you have it. I was sitting there having a grand time with fellow art students and then the reality of our age differences surfaced. Feeling like the Matriarch of the group, I decided I should buy us another round and just enjoy the company of my new art friends.
I decided to do some exploring after I left the group. I went window shopping, got lost, found my bearings and then got lost again. It was fun. After awhile I got a cappuccino and just sat and people watched until it turned dark. Then I strolled back to my apartment. I have the weekend to myself again. My room mates left for Rome on a tour early this morning and won’t be back until Sunday night. I am spending a quiet evening updating my blog.
Cindy Mochel Livermore 