"Villa Next Door - II" - SOLD

Last year we stayed at the villa behind the one we stayed in this year.
Last year I set up an easel one day and painted the "The Villa Next Door"
and that's the villa we ended up staying at this year. This painting is
a plein air painted from our front porch view looking in the same
direction as last year, but seeing yet another villa next door. I wonder
if this is a form of painting destiny. Think maybe this will be the
next one we actually stay in next year???

9 x 12 Oil on Canvas



THANK YOU TERRY & JAMES. MAY YOU ENJOY A LITTLE BIT OF ITALY WITH YOUR NEW PAINTING!! This is the community pool at the villa compound. Everyone staying
here has access to this olympic size pool. There's a cabana and bathroom
off to one side and is also surrounding gardens and stunning views.
You can swim some serious laps in this pool.

Traveling Partner

This is my traveling buddy, Rae Andrews, who's a super artist and best friend. We've had many road trips together, but this was our biggest one to date. This was taken at one of the many great restaurants we tried along the way. As usual, we are toasting another wonderful day in Italy!

Monteroso - Cinque Terre

This is the town of Monteroso, where we stayed while visiting Cinque Terre. We got off the train and walked to our hotel, dragging our suitcases behind us. We loved this town with it's many great restaurants, old town, hiking and beautiful water. We ate dinner at one of the sidewalk restaurants and immediately thereafter, jumped in the ocean for a refreshing end to the evening.

Villa View

This is a piece of the view off the front porch of our Italian villa. This is the scene we woke up to every morning. Later I will post some of the spectacular sunsets we watched every night looking out in this same direction.

Travel Buddies

These are my traveling buddies. From Left to Right: Rae Andrews, Me, Eileen Pestorius, Courtney Brown, and Carol McCollum. Taking the photo is Diane Peters. I'll sneak in another photo of Diane in a later post. We are all fellow artists who regularly paint together at home and if we're really lucky, get to travel abroad once a year. We toasted many many glasses of great Chianti wine together in appreciation of each and every day, sunset, meal, painting, gelato and anything else we deemed worthy.

"How Hot Is It?"

For those of you who don't live in Austin and have been hearing me complain about the heat . . . just look at this poor little squirrel. He pretty well describes exactly the way I feel every time I go outside. Thank you to my good buddy Jane M. who took this photo the other night from her back yard and has graciously agreed to share it.