Mediterranean Travel Journal

I kept a journal of all the charming places and people

I met this past 2 weeks

My adventure began in Rome and continued through

some of the Mediterranean's

and Adriatic's most unique ports,

including Monaco in France, Portofino, Sorrento,

Corfu in Greece, Split in Croatia,

Slovenia, the island of Malta and my all time favorite Taormina.

The journey coming to an end with several days in Venice.

While visiting Corsica, France

I had an opportunity to do a water color of the Cathedral

Santa Maria Assunta in Ajaccio

I loved all the architectural details on this building in Portofino,

it is called Casa Dei Leoni

as there are 4 large concrete lions guarding the entrance.

Nearby the town of Monaco is the sheltered bay of Villefranche sur mer

where I painted this view from a shady town square.

The main square in Sorrento is the Piazzo Tasso.

This is my rendering of the statue of San Antonio Abate.

Directly behind the statue is the Corso Italia,

one of the most beautiful streets in Sorrento.

Welcome to Valletta,

Malta with the oldest free standing structures in the known world,

megalithic temples on Malta date from circa 3250B.C.

a mass of honey colored limestone with a history larger than life.

Marsaxlokk is Malta's main fishing village.

It is the best place to see the colorful traditional Maltese fishing boats,

the luzzo, with the mythical eye of Osiris

( Phoenicians' god of protection from evil ) painted on the prows.

With a latte and the waiters ball point pen

a rendering of an ancient cathedral located in Saint Trupiano Square,

Kotor becomes my subject matter.

This was a quick rendering of the coast as our ship was pulling out of port

and circling around slowly with one last glimpse of this ancient town

I step out side the crowded ancient Roman palace

built between 295 and 305 by the emperor Diocletian

as his place of retirement in Split, Croatia

and find a quiet place to paint in the large square

with the beautiful water fountain.

I stop for a respite and latte at a sidewalk cafe

and sketch a rendering of the architectural details

on the building across from the bustling square.

Just having fun with paints and adding the eye of Osiris in the sky...

Packing for Paris

I took a break from packing today to take a snap of some favorite wardrobe pieces that are making their way to Paris with me.

Black cashmere coat and scarf, fur trimmed hat and gloves, big bag for traveling with, going out to dinner boots, and an adorable wool sweater.
Who knew photographing black clothing could be so challenging. If the photo is too dark you cannot see any of the lovely details.
If it comes out too light the pieces look grey instead of black. I'll admit I am on a learning curve with this. ( And open to suggestions ) Let's just compromise and even if it looks grey, trust me, it is black. Except the sweater with the ruffled collar, it really is charcoal grey with black embellishment on both collar and cuffs.

I found some 1 1/2" diameter book rings at Staples today that are working beautifully for binding my new travel journal pages together. This way I can pop a couple pages out at a time to work on instead of trying to juggle the chubbiness of it all.
I've also been pulling together art supplies and reading material to pack in my carry on bag for creative amusement on the long flight, but can't seem to find where my mini watercolor set has disappeared to...

Preparing for Paris...

I am creating a new journal to fill while I am in Paris.
I've been pilfering through piles of paraphernalia in search of miscellaneous papers to combine.

I enjoy drawing, especially people, and airports are a great place for quick gestural style sketches, so sketching paper is a must, water color paper too, just in case I find time.

The rest is whatever I find to work with. Much of it is too light to hold up to the stress of travel so I pick up some paint swatch cards to fold and glue on the ends for durability.

With a few snips with decorative scissors we have pretty and practical.

Of course we need to include pockets for the little odds and ends that need a secure place to be tucked away, such as post cards, hotel stationary, match books and maps.
Most of the papers I prefer to leave blank until I reach my destination and the energy there takes over.

I can already envision using the local Paris newspapers classified ads pasted in as the perfect background for a charcoal or graphite rendering of an ancient architectural design.