Roma
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There’s so much here in this painting!
There’s the trip to Europe with my family, the day walking around Rome with my sweetie and our nibling HLeigh, then the idea and the process of painting it…
In 2017, the year my sister-in-law Vernona turned 50, she organized a trip to Europe. She, my brother Joe and their four kids were doing a grand tour. When my parents signed on, I lobbied my Joe to join them – for at least some of the trip. I had a feeling it could be the last time we got to be in Italy with my dad. As it turns out it was. We savor the time we had there with all of them. And will especially treasure the time with my papa.
The trip included a trip to Rome. Dad wasn’t able to walk much, so one day, Joe, HLeigh and I set out wandering on foot. We made our way across central Rome to the Campo dei Fiori – a square that has a rich and varied history. It was the site for papal excecutions and book burnings centuries ago and has been a daily market for fruits, vegetables and fish since the 1860’s. Now it seems to be more a tourist spot than where Roman citizens do their shopping. The vibe reminded me of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
We had breakfast at a café on the periphery and then took a walk around the square. There were some beautiful displays of produce and flowers amidst the souvenir and scarf vendors. I took photos of the splashes of color wherever I saw it, HLeigh took a drink from one of Rome’s many ever-flowing fountains and we headed on.
The prompt to actually paint it came in the summer of 2020 when “Zinoasis” – a large square painting of zinfandel grapes – sold to someone out of state. I took the painting out of the frame to ship it in a large tube, leaving me a really nice frame that needed art.
I was going to just do a straight painting of it but then on a hike it came to me to paint it through the map of Rome, just as I did the flower stall through the map of Paris several years ago.
The first thing was to figure out what part of the map to use and at what scale. My math head came in handy to figure out the scale of the Paris map painting – 2.7 kilometers, square. And HLeigh’s friend Livia, who is a bona fide native Romana gave me feedback on the section of the map.
Now for the real challenge! I chose to draw and paint it just as I did “Paris” – no contour drawing for the actual shapes. The only pencil lines on my watercolor paper were those of the map. Each plum, tomato and apricot were eye-balled from the map superimposed on the reference image. And I avoided the lines of the map with my brush; no masking fluid!
I do believe this is the most difficult painting I’ve done to date. I had to make each object read as contiguous and three-dimensional, even as each one was painted in separate sections. And those baskets put me through it!
The name of this one follows the lead of “Paris” Rather than call it “Rome,” I decided, when in Rome… call it “Roma.”
A fun bit of synchronicity: the beautiful frame that has been waiting for this painting is made by an Italian company called Roma.
29”x29” – Spring 2021 – Watercolor on paper.
Paris
Original – My Private Collection
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In the spring of 2012 I painted a piece I called “Blossoms Squared” where I superimposed a grid over a reference photo and painted it one square at a time. This triggered a stream of ideas. I thought about simply rotating the grid so the squares were on the diagonal, but also thought about other “screens” through which to create an image and started seeing them everywhere: a brick wall, detailed scrolled ironwork… But then, I thought about maps. I love maps! One that I know well and is very close to my heart is the street map of Paris. Thus emerged the seed for this painting.
These flowers were in a florist’s sidewalk display on rue Monge in the 5th in Paris – not far from my apartment when I spent half a year there in 1996.
Setting it up was a challenge which took some technical skills to pull off. If I simply enlarged a street map of Paris, the width of the streets would be so large that they’d obscure too much of the flowers. Using my projector and Photoshop, I was able to create a workable “screen” out of the map. In order to have a the right level of detail, I ended up including only the very center of Paris (not even the Eiffel Tower made it in) to superimpose over the image of the flowers.
This is an entirely different way to think and paint. I had to find the image within each of the shapes on the map. It was interesting to watch myself switching back and forth between concentrating on the image of the flowers and noticing where I was in the city, while either remembering when I’ve been in that spot or wondering what is there on that stretch of street – apartments, restaurants, bookstores? Even without the street names, I still recognize a remarkable number of streets and bridges.
I wonder if I’d painted this image as I normally do, from a contour drawing, if it would be as interesting.
I’m so grateful for the creative spark to explore ideas like this. Now which map/image combo is next?
I tossed around myself and talked about possible names several times with others. More involved names seemed forced, so I decided to keep this painting’s name super simple. This is Paris.
May – June 2013 – 29″x29″ – Watercolor on paper
Blossoms Squared
Original Sold
Two of the ladies in my Tuesday painting group were inspired to paint a palette like the piece I call “Full Spectrum” I painted years ago. It’s a chart of 22 colors down the left and across the top with each color mixed with all the others in the middle.
I was sruck by two things out of this: one, how much fun they were having painting (sometimes making this art requires such intense focus and concentration that it’s not easy!) and that I remembered having the thought back then that I’d like to do something else with painting squares.
Then it came to me that I could paint one of my reference photos one square at a time. Instead of a contour drawing of the image, I superimposed a grid on the image in Photoshop and drew lines on the watercolor paper. Each square is a small absract painting.
At first it was totally thrilling! I loved the shapes and colors. But that left-brain of mine really is tenacious! It wants to get in there and make something of the art. Painting one square at at time is a huge lesson in patience.
I think the result is interesting and the exploration was worthwhile. Also, since I painted each square wet (for the most part) it was incredible practice at working with the paint and water – which I can always learn more about. Six of the painters in the Tuesday group then jumped in and painted a piece square by square. They each said they leaarned so much – about really seeing what they’re painting, about working wetter and softer, about the abstract quality of all painting.
This image came from my neighbor Megan and Jeff’s crabapple tree one spring. “Blossoms Squared.”
29″x21″ – May 2012 – Watercolor on paper
Full Spectrum
This was an exercise that my mom and I did years ago. There was a teacher who suggested it – the assignment was to put the cool colors on one axis and the warm on the others. But that meant that some colors would not be mixed with each other. So, I chose 22 colors and put the same colors along the side and the top and mixed them all with each other. I didn’t fully mix them, just let them swirl around in a square of water. It ended up having great energy. When I’ve hung this piece in my festival booth, I’ve hung it down low because small children are really, really drawn to it. I remember loving the spectrum of colors when I was a little girl – and in fact I still do!
22″x22″ – 2002? – My private collection
Sizes/Prices:
22″x22″ – $395
