"Blue Madonna" - Painting

Hello again. I had such a good response painting my version of the "Blue Madonna" by Carlo Dolci on Via Calimala in Florence, Italy, last Wednesday. Some examples:
One Italian couple asked me why I was not painting on "tela" -- the Italian word for 'canvas'.
I received a possible commission to create a mural in a small town about 40 km from Firenze.
And one very lovely American girl from New York with big brown eyes (who looked a little like the actress Anne Hathaway) exclaimed that this was the most striking painting she had ever seen here -- and "I live right over there [she points] and I walk down this street everyday to see the art!"
Another man returned to my space around midnight to find me washing my artwork away. He shook his head and said, "I do not know how you can make it disappear. That [artwork] was brilliant!"

Brilliant? Perhaps not, but I appreciated his sentiment just the same. That said, I decided to start painting, now that I am more settled and have finished my application for 'rinnovo' of my 'permesso di soggiorno' -- renewing my 'permission to stay' permit. And why not create something more permanent in this striking blue? Here is a view of my little room above Piazza Santa Croce. You may see my work-in-progress on the right. While I was all gung-ho to get to
work, I realized that I had forgotten to buy some mineral spirits for oil painting -- cannot take THAT with one on the plane. (Oh - yes, my lagging piece of luggage was delivered to me at my friend Jay's apartment last Monday, so all is well on that end.)

Since it was about 1:30 p.m. when I realized I could not oil paint (and most shops in Italia are closed for a long and social lunch), I chose instead to do an under-painting in acrylic. This is what you see here. After 3:30 p.m., I was able to get back to the art supply store and buy some 'trementina' -- turpentine (spirits were not available). I will keep you posted, so stay tuned . . .