Colosseum and Trastevere Complete with Umbrellas and Bicycle

A couple more from the new series:

The Colosseum in the Rain. 

I arrived at the Colleseum a bit by accident, just taking the bus and deciding to jump off when things looked interesting. I literally stumbled upon it. It is as impressive as you would think, even in the pouring rain. I kept getting approached by umbrella sellers, being one of the only tourists who didn't yet have one, but I had a rain jacket with a good hood and a desire to keep my hands on my painting bag after all the warnings I'd read about pickpockets here. I wouldn't mind losing a credit card, but my iPhone is my lifeline here, and a sketchbook, well that can't be replaced.  As it turns out, I'm glad I didn't do business with these guys.  A commotion broke out, and a parting of the sea of tourists, to reveal a fight between these umbrella sellers and the local police. It got ugly, with one of the umbrella guys whacking the coppers with an umbrella, and another picking up a menacing boulder and scrambling for position to hurl it. I walked away fast. Violence freaks me out. But I suppose in a place famous for feeding Christians to lions for the entertainment of the masses a little violence just helps get in the appropriate mindset to contemplate. 

Hanging Out In Trastevere

This is a typical street scene in lovely Trastevere, although truth be told I kind of pieced this together from a composite of photos.  I love the feel here, and every time I think the word 'Trastevere' I hear the voice of my friend the tour guide explaining that the river is the Tevere, therefore 'Tras' (across) and 'Tevere' are not just the name, but also directions to gets there, being just over the river from the center of the city.  I only knew it as the place where Alec Baldwin meets his former self (or is the other guy meeting his future self) in Woody Allen's 'To Rome With Love'.  But I knew I wanted to come here, and I wasn't disappointed. The winding streets just keep revealing one surprise after another. Someday I'd like to come back and spend more time exploring here. And painting of course.  There really are all these classic old bikes leaning against walls everywhere, laundry on the line, a tumble of architectural detail, crumbling and otherwise. Trastevere is like that adorable child, ready to have its portrait done at every turn. 

For anyone who might be wanting one of these when they're done you can still order them at the pre-buy pricing anytime before April 15th.  The info is on my website at http://www.carolmcquaidart.com/italy-2014.html

Bernini's River Gods

This was such a fun piece for me to do. It's the first time I've pieced together a couple of tiles to make a bigger image, something I'll happily do again. I did this from the sketch I posted earlier, done on site at Bernini's fountain in Piazza Navona, Rome.  Rio Di Plata's hand didn't fit on my sketchbook page, so I had to do a bit of a brain twist to add it in later, having to draw it in backwards because of the nature of relief printing. I'm happy to see his thumb is not on the wrong side of his hand :).  I first saw these sculpted river gods at night, during my moonlight tour. They are magical anytime of day. 

It's probably not that cool to have a favourite spot on your own artwork, but I love the bottom of the other guy's foot. Makes my own feet feel a little ticklish. As I was drawing these figures I kept thinking about the fact that whoever modeled for these all those hundreds of years ago was still so present; and how cool it is to feel someone's presence so intimately, someone who had a life, dreams, ideas, a reason to be modeling at that time and in that place, but separated by centuries. Just another of the million things we have to marvel at every day. 

Can't wait to throw some colour on this. 

For anyone who might be wanting one of these when they're done you can still order them at the pre-buy pricing anytime before April 15th.  The info is on my website at http://www.carolmcquaidart.com/italy-2014.html

First Peek at the New Series in B/W

A few black and white images from the series I'm working on:

Rooftops of Montmartre 

This was created from a sketch I did perched in the window of our incredible home exchange in Paris last summer. The apartment we stayed in was filled with light, art and incredible books.  Creating prints always becomes a blend of things for me; the subject itself, how I was feeling when I sketched it or chose it, my environment when I'm carving the plate, what music I'm listening to as I ink and transfer the image, all of it rolled up into one image. This one makes me feel great, blending time in that great apartment with my husband, time spent here at Ginestrelle, carving in the sunshine among all these wonderful and artistic people, listening to Lucio Dalla, and to Middle Brother singing songs like 'Portland' and 'Daydreaming', thinking about my family and music, art and life. All on one piece of paper. Definitely keeping one of these for myself when they're done. 

Glass Ceiling

I wandered into this building in Rome as I was walking from the trevi fountain to piazza Navona.  I'm glad I looked up.  I had an immediate and I think understandable urge to lie on the floor and contemplate it for hours.  The sunshine was streaming in, the sky bright bright blue.  So beautiful. 

Le Petit Prince

This was my room in Lyon, France last summer. I stayed here while I was studying, and I loved it. Not just the room but the whole experience; having an 'apero' every evening, dinner and conversation in the dining room with my wonderful host, and every night reading the copy of Le Petit Prince that was waiting in this room for me when I arrived. 

While the little prince and Saint Exupery were not actually in my room, somehow they landed here. They both make appearances in other prints from this series as well. I wonder if anyone will spot them.  

I loved the experience of reading this book so much, I thought I'd recreate some of that magic by reading Pinocchio in Italian while I'm here. I'm not sure if it's because my italian is not great or because I've been so busy, but I'm on page four on day 19.  Not exactly crashing my way through it. Oh well, I have a six hour train ride coming up in a few days. Maybe I'll make some progress then. 

I've pulled between 4-7 prints each from 8 different images. That's a lot of rubbing with a wooden spoon. My hands are officially done.  It's time for a well-earned rest. 

For anyone who might be wanting one of these when they're done you can still order them at the pre-buy pricing anytime before April 15th.  The info is on my website at http://www.carolmcquaidart.com/italy-2014.html

Hot Off The Spoon!

Yahoo!  I've been working on this print series solid since I got off the plane on March 1st. Today was the big reveal. It was finally time to do a print run. Working in relief printing is interesting for a bunch of reasons. And, a person really has time to ponder those reasons when they're head down over a set of linoleum tiles for 9 days solid. First of all you're working backwards all the time, like in a mirror.  You draw, transfer, carve, ink the plate, lay the paper down and gently rub each print into existence with a wooden spoon without ever being able to see how it's coming. You can't see what it'll look like until you pull the paper off the inked plate, when it's totally done.  I love that moment. Each print emerges with its own unique character. It reminds me of the doctor saying 'It's a boy!' after all those hours of labour.  You look at your new creation and think 'yep, that was worth it all'. 

Sarah came in and took these pics, then we went out in the dark to do a photo shoot with her amazing headdresses. She strapped each piece onto my head, wrapped me in a sheet and took photos while Marina shone the car headlights on the whole scene.  I felt like a fairy creature from the forest with these majestically creations emerging from the top of my head. Can't wait to see the photos. 

We've both been working so steady, it was fun to have both of our projects hatch on the same day. We celebrated with local farm wine and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.  I guess you could call that a good artist day all around :-)

Invisible progress

Don't be fooled by the fact that I'm not posting much artwork. This I swear has been the most creatively productive time of my life. 

Here's a typical day here:

6:30 Wake up to sunshine streaming in my window and a symphony of birds singing nearby.  Amazing. 

Lie there for half an hour contemplating the day and feeling so lucky to be here. 

7:00 Get up, go get my art toys  and head outside to carve lino In the sunshine and wait for the breakfast feast I know is coming. 

8:30 Feast on amazing fresh local fare, most of it from neighboring farms, drink freshly brewed coffee and make plans for the day. 

9-1 Carve carve carve. 

1-2 Make some kind of collaborative feast with my fellow artists in residence and eat it at the sunny table we've set up in the open barn/studio drinking local organic wine and talking about how our projects are going. 

2-4 carve carve carve. 

Some undetermined time in there: sneak away for a nap.  Or two. 

As I'm carving I keep seeing Sarah pass by dragging various woodland finds and ephemera off to where she's making her incredible headdress pieces. Our Finnish poet Sami can be spotted standing in the garden scribbling in his moleskine. Hye Weon is busy in her outdoor studio sculpting clay, Marina and her mother are busy making everything lovely, and the two black cats, both of whom we are calling Neroni because we can't tell them apart and we like the name are wandering and lounging in sunny spots around the property. 

Late afternoons we go on some fantastic excursion together, like going up to the neighbor's farm to buy fresh eggs, discovering new picnic destinations, exploring Assisi, making the pilgrimage into town to the art supply store, whatever is going. It's always something.  Today it was Assisi and Saint Francis's tomb, tomorrow it's mass at a centuries old church in a nearby village. 

In the evenings we watch italian movies or we sneak in a little more work. 

It's perfect having all this cup-filling exploring to do. Even with all the time we spend eating and doing 'Le Gita Scholastica' ( my new word of the day, means field trip) I know I'm carving as much as my hands will let me. I'm constantly aware of them and what they can do, and when they're about to give out.  Thats the price of having broken them I guess, and having screws and plates in there. When they're tired I can feel all that stuff. I'm riding the edge of what I can do in a day. I'm deep into 10 linocuts, and I figure I can finish carving them all ( and possibly one or two more) by Wednesday, print Wednesday afternoon,, let them dry until Friday, paint them Saturday, and be ready to head to the coast Sunday. 

One of the things we did in Assisi tonight was go and see the gallery where our group show will be in November/December. It, like everything else in Assisi, was totally beautiful. If you're an artist and you've ever thought of doing a residency I highly recommend Arte Studio Ginestrelle.  They take amazing care of us. The house is beautiful and comfortable. It's just the right size for getting to know your fellow artists but never feeling crowded or lacking privacy.  There's lots of studio space, and great outdoor space for working on projects.  Marina and her parents nurture us,  constantly stoking the wood fires in the different rooms, making sure we have what we need but leaving us free to create at our own pace. Everyone is having an amazing time. I can't imagine a better artists residency experience. 

Another Day in Italian Heaven

Here is my yesterday:

Got up, feasted on a breakfast of bruschetta and perfect little pesto toasts, fruit, yogurt, homey from a nearby farm and coffee. Did an amazing hike up to a little church on the hill. Sat in the sun working on my project, the sunshine making the linoleum tiles softer and easier to carve.  Made a 'collaboration' lunch feast on a little outdoor stove, dragged a table down from the studio and ate in the sunshine with my new little family of artist friends.   Went back to carving until my hands could carve no more, discovering all kinds of things about how to wield my new carving tools, then drove into Santa Maria degli Angeli for pizza at Penny Lane, swapping stories and listening to Beatles tunes. 

Just another day in Italian heaven. 

Here's Sarah dragging her find back from our hike:

It was like being followed by a moose, hearing her thrash through the brush behind me on our way back, this on her head like an antler. 

And Hye Weon making faces at dinner: 

Perugian Ink (no, I didn't get a tattoo)

My first morning in Perugia I walked past La Bottega del Papiro and saw this;

like a beautiful puppy with its paws against the glass, pleading to be loved and taken home. It's is a calligraphy pen, two nibs and 8 little bottles of ink. Colours with names like 'Turchese', 'Arancia' and 'Bordeaux', tops dip-sealed in wax the colour of the contained pigment; who could say no to that?!   I walked past that window every day and today, my final morning in Perugia, I went in and made it mine. 

This was a productive time for me.  I've done nothing but wander and draw for five days straight.  It's been fantastic, but I'm ready to be in the company of people again. 

And that brings us to Monte Subasio. Marina, the residency coordinator, came and picked me up in Assisi. We did a quick grocery shop then drove up here. Arte Studio Ginestrelle is situated on a beautiful farm  20 minutes outside of town in the Monte Subasio Regional Park. It is beyond beautiful. There are four other artists in residence at the moment; two Finnish poets, a French costume/set designer and a visual artist from Korea. Marina and her mother made a welcome dinner of wild boar and chicory. It was fantastic, as was the wine and conversation. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone here. Afterwards we watched an old italian film about Francesco of Assisi (call it research) and now I'm tucked into my big warm comfy bed, so happy, and looking forward to tomorrow. 

Here's a little sneak peek at the lino plates I've transferred so far:

Some get split on half, others joined together, but it gives you an idea.