The first Wednesday

On mornings like this it makes me very happy that the school realizes the bohemian nature of its art students! The language students start at 9:00 and the Art class begins at 3:00...plenty of time to go listen to street performers at night and sip a little wine and roll out of bed when the spirit moves you. 

First thing this morning, it was a beautiful walk to Casa Buonarroti to walk through Michelangelo's house. The collection that has been amassed is amazing, and the paintings in the Galleria telling the story of his artistic life...commissions and his patrons...let's just say I stood there for a very long time trying to soak it all in. So much so that it was 2:00 before I realized, so I had to zip home and pick up my stuff and head to class.

Did I mention that it rained sometime in the night...well, my gesso wasn't quite dry yet, humidity and all that. So for the first hour and a bit, I held my canvas up in front of a fan and 'watched gesso dry' ... Then another half hour of sanding and I had a surface that was ready to begin on...

My sketch and a photo of the original!

First layer of background...Sonja assures me that the first couple of layers always look like this...I think I chose this painting because I love the hat!

At 7:00 it was time to head home...only a few blocks, but the buildings on the way are wonderful. This one in particular. The exterior fresco is crumbling but you can get an idea of how beautiful it once was.

Magn Cosmva - Flor-Et-Sen-DII

And the ubiquitous Medici coat of arms.

One of the chocolatier shop getting ready for Easter!