30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 25 - Varenna Sunset

I used a reference photo I took on my trip to Lake Como for my day 25 painting for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days."

 Check out the artwork of the other artists taking part in the challenge here: http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com

If you want to vote check Sea Dean's blog. http://paintamasterpiece.blogspot.com

Varenna Sunset by Joan Tavolott

Traveling Home & Sketchbook Photos

All vacations eventually come to an end, and this one finally did. I took my morning walk toward Fiumellate and on the way back stopped for bread and eggs for breakfast. I said goodbye to the owner of the grocery store who I probably saw every morning while we were there. lol After breakfast we packed up, left our apartment, and walked up to the Varenna Train Station. We thought we could catch the 11:37 train to Milan...but there wasn't one. Since we were already there I stayed put.

This is the Varenna station with my husband waiting with the luggage. He ended up going to a cafe down the road to have a cappuccino while I did a sketch. What else do you do when you have more than an hour to kill? lol

I sketched facing the other direction. This was done across the fold of the sketchbook.

We stayed overnight at the Sheraton Malpensa Hotel which is right at the airport. That way we didn't have to worry about getting to the airport...besides it had an indoor infinity swimming pool for me to enjoy. We were lucky we were so close because with everything that had been going on in the world, security was very tight. We were on the security line for nearly 1 3/4 hours and our plane was boarding when we got to the gate.

I like to end my trip sketchbooks with a sketch done at the airport, but in this case I did a sketch on the plane when they were coming through with the beverage cart. We were both ready for a glass or two of wine after being on line for so long.

That is the end of my trip! I hope you have enjoyed traveling with me.

One of my blogging friends, Tina Koyama (her blog is in my list on the right) asked me to show photos of my handmade sketchbook. She makes great ones (coptic stitched) and has show how to do those on her blog. Mine isn't quite so fancy and it wasn't easy to take photos of it because you have to stretch it out and then it is just a narrow photo. I used cardboard pieces covered with scrapbooking paper for the cover. I did the front in a black print and the back is solid black. That way I can tell the front from the back. You can also see I put a little white square in the top right corner so I could tell which way to open it.

The cover got quite beat up putting it in and out of my backpack so much. I used a full sheet of Arches 140 lb paper that I cut into 4 long strips. I folded each strip into 4 pieces and joined them together with small pieces of watercolor paper that I glued to the two sections being joined. It is a concertina, or accordion sketchbook. I had 16 pages going in one direction and then 16 pages in the back when you turn the book over. Here is how it looks open to a few pages at the beginning.

And here is the entire front side of the book stretched out on my couch. I did make sure all my sketches were going in the same direction as I was doing them.

Although I do love Arches paper for painting, it is not the best paper to use in a book that has folded pages because it starts to crack along the folds. You can see what I mean in the sketch of the train station above. I will have to experiment with other brands of watercolor paper to see which brands fold better. I'm also not sure if the next time I will use both sides of the paper or not. 

Last Day in Varenna

Knowing it was my last day in Varenna was bittersweet. I enjoyed being there so much, but I was ready to go home and be able to see everyone I had left back in NY. We woke up to a cloudy day and expected showers at some point.

I headed up the hill to this Albergo. We had cappuccino there one morning and it was usually filled with tourists who looked like they were ready to go hiking. I sketched it from across the street.

There had been signs posted all over the town that there was going to be some filming for an Italian TV show about, La Famiglia. As I was starting to walk along the promenade by the lake it was drizzling. I decided to sit in a covered stone area that had views of the water. Then I noticed that there was a film crew setting up. I watched them for a while, but the only thing I saw them filming was the ferry coming into the dock. The didn't film any people and after about a half hour they packed up and left.

This was the ferry they were filming.

I had a fairly nice view from where I was sitting, so I sketched.

This was my final sketch for the day....people with umbrellas because of the showers.

That evening the sky over the lake was just gorgeous.

Tomorrow I will post the last of my sketches from the trip.

In And Around Varenna

I really loved the look of Varenna so I decided to stay there and sketch a bit instead of traveling.

This is the steeple of the local church.

I went back for a second visit to Villa Monastero. It is such a pretty place. I loved the fountain.

So I painted it.

I loved this odd little building at the end of the point.

So I painted it.

A new friend joined me while he was resting in my palette.

Every place I passed was a possible painting or sketch.

The colors are so great on the buildings. I sat on a bench down by the water to paint this, and talked to just about everyone who sat nearby.

And the contradas always called to me. The man at the bottom was taking a photo looking up. I wonder if I ended up in his photo.

Still more posts to come.

A Walk from Varenna

After visiting all the other towns by ferry I ended up with a page of quick ink sketches that I did when the ferry was pulling into some of the other towns. This went across a double page in my sketchbook.

Here are a few closeups.

I decided to stay on our side of the lake for a change. Every morning I would walk from our apartment to the very edge of the next town that was about a mile away. I knew from my research that the town, Fiumelatte has "the shortest river in Itlay." Apparently it runs at certain times of the year and then dries up. I didn't know if it was running or not, but I decided to make an extra trip there to check. When I got to this spot I thought I had found the river....

but I decided to keep on walking and take more photos.

And then I heard this roaring noise and went a little further to find this. It was so noisy your couldn't hear anything else. It was right along the road and went under the road into the lake. 

I wanted to sketch it, but there was no room at all to sit down, so I sketched it standing up.

I walked a bit and found this great view back to Varenna that I wanted to paint. I thought a panoramic watercolor paper would be best. As I was sketching I kept getting lost in the buildings so I decided it would be best to start on the left and sketch a building or two and paint them as I went along. The color made it easier to figure out where I was in the view. I did most of the painting that day but completed it the following day.

Here are a few more photos from Fiumelatte.

I had been gone from the apt for quite a while and I knew it was a long walk back...and I was hungry and was ready for a bit of vino.  I will continue tomorrow.

Lenno, Varenna and Tremezzo

Somehow yesterday I missed posting this painting of Tremezzo's waterfront.

Next to explore was the town of Lenno which was further down the lake. I had some really pretty views.

With all the traveling I was doing by ferry I did some small thumbnails of some of the stops of the mid-lake ferry.

This was sketched along the promenade of Lenno.

I loved this Lenno building all covered with plants and foliage.

Each night in Varenna I would watch the sunsets. 

I enjoyed seeing the colors and the mountains in the distance.

In an unrelated part of the post...I need to share. One of the art associations I belong to, the Wet Paints Studio Group had their juried member's show over the weekend. My collage "Sunset" won first place in the mixed media category. It was done with washi oriental papers that I painted first with watercolors.

Bellagio

Next the ferry brought us to Bellagio which sits out on a stretch of land that juts out into the middle of the lake. It is a pretty town, with cobblestone stairs similar to Varenna. But Bellagio seems much more commercial than Varnenna with many, many more shops with souvineers  and lovely merchandise too.

I sat and painted a lovely scarf store at the top of the stairs.

This man was patiently waiting for the ferry when we were.

The houses by the lake were very pretty.

I started this painting and it started to rain. I went back to try and finish it later.

To be continued....