Painting Between Rain Showers

  Lost, but not lost, on a deserted gravel road in central Italy on an overcast day.

  

Me, way down the road on the left, painting.

  Janelle and I discovered a new gravel road in an area we know well. It was a nice surprise. I am always searching for new views.

  Janelle will take photos and walks while I paint.

  

  At work on a simple farmhouse scene, just beginning to get started with this square format.

Design, design, design.
Let's see where it leads.

Some decisions have been made, resulting in a harmony of the whole.
A balanced design.

  Taking the show on the road. I found another spot to set up, later the same morning.

Janelle asked me to paint this scene.

  After, I set up a bigger un-stretched canvas.

  This is the first time I have painted on un-stretched canvas, which I will roll up to take back to California and have it stretched. I hope this will be one of many this year.

This size, rolled up, will fit in our suitcase.
I can always ship larger ones.

This painting was painted very quickly,
a little bit like falling. Almost out of control.

  There is a quote I came across in an Italian art magazine, translated to English.
  I don't know who to credit it to:

  "We look within ourselves and wish artists made the strings of our spirituality vibrate. 
  This is not decoration, this is feeling"

Painting peripherally, with feeling.

  Speaking seeing peripherally, with feeling, I am reminded of one of my favorite de Kooning quotes.
  When I am not seeing the world proper, not sure, 'slipping' I think of this quote:

"You know, the real world, this so called world, is just something you put up with like everybody else. I'm in my element when I'm a little bit out of this world: I'm in the real world- I'm on the beam.
Because when I'm falling, I'm doing alright. When I'm slipping, I say, 'Hey, this is interesting.' it's when I'm standing upright that bothers me...As a matter of fact, I'm really slipping most of the time. I'm like a slipping glimpser."

   A slipping glimpser is someone who slides along a beam of light, finds the eternal in the transitory and communicates it to the rest of us. To de Kooning, that is what it means to be an artist.