Cari Amici (Dear Friends),
So, on Friday afternoon I returned to Caprese Michelangelo, east of Arezzo, in the lovely Italia. I worked on as much of the acrylic painted mural as I could finish that evening, making corrections that could dry fast on the figures, creating light areas in anticipation of oils. That night around 2 a.m., I applied acrylic varnish on the entire mural. As Sandro Zecchi, of Zecchi’s Art Supply in Firenze, Italia recommended to me, I used a mixture of half glossy and half mat, mixed with a wee bit of water.
Saturday, I got an early start on the oil painting part, namely the figures. My friend and mural teacher, Victor Goikoetxea, came over and took a quick look at the Michelangelo Museum on the top of the mountain. Then he joined us for dinner at La Buca di Michelangelo before heading off to his own space in the Tuscan countryside.
I ended up working after dinner until 4:30 a.m. Saturday night. And Sunday, I started up again around 9 a.m. and this night I never went to bed. Because of the scheduling of my ride to Arezzo to catch the train, I had to be finished with the mural and packed up, ready to go by 7 a.m. Those who know me well know that I love the mornings, but not after the nights. And the night always gets first dibs on my attention.
However, I got my second wind about 5 a.m. after taking a break to wander out in the moonlight to pick and eat some grapes an hour before that. I finished almost everything, except the flowers on the two potted plants, some minor details in the figures, and also, I had intended to put a nude man into the hole behind the real wooden window. Equal rights, you know, but also as a gift for the woman of the house. But that will have to wait until spring since my friends are leaving Italia soon.
Here are the images I took around 6 a.m. today. One is the view from the door on the left as you enter the room; the other from above the center of the Jacuzzi. I hope you like my mural. It is approximately 200 x 400 cm. I, for one, am pleased with my first mural (as an adult), but exhausted.
Please feel free to leave a comment on my blog entries, if you feel so inspired. Thank you for sharing my artistic journey with me!
