Wishing You The Best This Holiday Season!

Hi, Friends! Can you believe that the holiday season is here already and 2023 is just around the corner?

Because I’ve never painted a portrait but wanted to use this on the front of our Christmas card, drawing and painting of the Holy Mother and Child began in August just in case I had to find a back-up idea. We saw this statue of Mary and Jesus at Castel Gandolfo‘s St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church when we visited Italy in 2015. I was taken by the detail and beauty this statue evoked but knew I wasn’t skilled enough to try it until this year, and even then, I reluctantly painted and put it away a few times while reflecting on how to do the best I could.

Holy Mother and Child Statue

From our home to yours, may you have a very peaceful, joyful, and relaxed holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Winter Solstice, Happy New Year, and Happy all other occasions celebrated this time of year. May 2023 be kind to all of us! ❤

Cibo di Comodita, Comfort Food

This larger painting is one that I’ve worked on for the last couple of months. What drew me to the subject were the bright pops of color and the contrast between the hard, rustic wood table and the soft flour and fresh food. When deciding on a name for this watercolor, to me it represented a hearty meal of comfort food, Italian-style, which translates in Italian to cibo di comodita. Can’t you just imagine the hands of an Italian woman making the noodles and creating an awesome homemade meal by following her grandmother’s recipes?

Painting the flour was a little intimidating because as I wasn’t sure how to approach it, so I practiced a few options. It turns out that an old, stiff, and heavily frayed Crayola brush from a children’s set of years gone by was the perfect candidate to help stipple in the fluffs of flour. Who knew?

Cibo di comodita in Italian translates to comfort food

I continue to attend a local, weekly Art Club where a gallery is being created, and plans are to put up this painting for sale when the gallery is completed. The thought of this is a little scary, yet a bit exciting at the same time. Wish me luck!

Italian Window

Over the past couple of weeks we were very fortunate to travel internationally for the first time. Although it was a little overwhelming to think about beforehand, once we landed in Italy I knew it was going to be a trip of a lifetime. Before we left I had seen dozens of photos of the tall, sometimes haphazardly placed apartment buildings separated by narrow, winding pedestrian walkways, and suddenly they were standing before me in all their glory. I was fascinated by the lovely windows and how some carried neatly manicured flower boxes with punches of colors, while others had the family’s laundry blowing in the breeze to dry. Through many of the open windows we could smell the family’s dinner simmering on the stove.

Because we were going to be gone for a couple of weeks, I packed the bare minimum of art supplies just in case I had time to be creative. Into the second week I found that I NEEDED the fulfillment of creating something artsy, so I opened up my basic set of Derwent Inktense pencils, sketch pad, and aquabrush. After reviewing some pictures I had taken on my phone, I began to crudely sketch this Italian window.

Italian Window

Even though I didn’t have all the art materials with me that I would have liked, it felt good to give this window some color and finish off with some India ink pen. I hope to paint this window again now that I am home and have ALL the colors, but I have so many other ideas in my head that I might have to try first.