Impact of Italy

Although I have been doing a lot of plein air painting in our beautiful Sonoran desert of late, I did manage to squeeze in a painting of a window from the town of Cortona that totally caught my fancy as we walked the steep streets and marveled at the medieval town. I am rather pleased with the result. The ancient stones with their many colors and textures and the bright flowers just take me right back to Italy!

I also have a number of pictures of doorways from the hill towns of Tuscany that I plan to paint. I hope that they come out as well as this one!
I see a series in my future!

Bob and I are off to Alaska this week where I plan to sketch and take pictures of what I hear is utterly fantastic scenery! We will be on a rail motorcoach tour from Fairbanks up into Denali National Park including time in Talkeetna near Mount McKinley. We will be on a Princess cruise back down the Inner Passage with stops at Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and finally Vancouver. We scheduled an extra day in Vancouver to tour Victoria including Buchart Gardens (more flowers!). We will then rent a car and drive a scenic highway through the mountains in Washington to spend time with our son and his family near Cooley Dam. I expect to come back with ideas for at least a million or more paintings!!