Italy 2013 Challenge- Day 5: "Rainy Night..."

"Rainy Night at the Piazza della Repubblica"
- soft pastel on charcoal gray paper
- approx. 11.7x16.5"/297x420mm

Raindrops wash down from an inky sky, an endless cascade of tiny, dazzling droplets shining brightly as they fall past the lights of the piazza.

They dash to the paving stones only to splash up in a last leap skyward before settling back to the ground to find somewhere else to run off to.

Umbrella-topped pedestrians pick their way across the open space, unsure if the next puddle is a deep one, hoping it isn't.

Around the square, waiters inside wait as tables outside wait out the weather.

And you are here. And I am here beside you in the rain. And we are happy.

--Mark Ivan Cole
***
I really stretched with this particular painting! It's my first-ever street scene; I've done pencil sketches here and there, but nothing this ambitious or colorful. I laid out everything on a grid to help me get the drawing right. I did a little smearing on the sky and the building in the upper left, and I  occasionally "pounced" a fingertip to soften a mark, but most of the strokes I left as they were laid. I let the painting sit for a couple of weeks, and then did a few corrections. The poem was written as I was thinking about my wife and myself walking across the Piazza della Repubblica in Florence, happy to be in Europe for the first time, together, regardless of the weather.

Italy 2013 Challenge- Day 4 "The Way Out"

"The Way Out" - soft pastel, 300x420mm

Today, we go back to the Roman Coliseum to get one person's perspective from the inside. Follow this link to hear the original music written for this story (and finished only an hour before I posted this!).

The Way Out

By Mark Ivan Cole

I don’t want to go out there.

Not today. Not anymore.

Not against this boy.

Not for the roar of the crowd, the laurel wreath.

Not anymore.

I’ve done this too many times. My knees are crumbling. My ribs ache with every breath. That unlucky cut from the last fight still seeps a little.

I can’t go home again.

No one goes home once they’ve made it to Rome.

Italy 2013 Challenge- Day 3: "Ponte Scaligero"

"Ponte Scaligero, Verona, Italy"
- soft pastel on paper
- approx. 9x12"/215x310mm

Our trip to Italy was with a Taiwanese group, and the guide helped us take the best advantage of any time we had to explore on our own. In Verona, she suggested a side trip to Ponte Scaligero, also known as Castelvacchio Bridge. Ping and I lingered there as long as we could, crossing over to wander into a beautiful park on the other side.

What I enjoyed most was the deep reflections in the water flowing beneath us. It was a great way to end the afternoon.

When we got home, I decided to paint this great, sweeping curve of the Adige River as it winds through Verona.

Italy 2013 Challenge- Day 2: "Roman Coliseum Gate" Duotone

It's Day 2! "Roman Coliseum Gate"
- graphite and charcoal on colored paper
- approx 8.25x11.5"/210x297mm

Photographs of the Roman Coliseum really don't do it justice. You have to walk between these massive stone walls to sense their weight and feel the sheer magnitude of this place. Even after enterprising salvagers dug out the iron support bars (note the holes), these gargantuan arches still stand.

Wandering through the corridors, imagining the thunder of thousands of voices in the stands, I wondered: though the building remains, do we remember its heroes?

Nothing we do is permanent, though some of it may last awhile. What am I leaving behind? It might be around a long time.

Italy 2013 Challenge- Day 1 of 15: "Ristorante"

You can't "do Italy" in a week, but we certainly covered a lot of ground there recently--our first trip to Europe--just enough to whet our appetites for more! The people were wonderful, very helpful despite my [Mark's] Spanish-laced attempts to speak Italian. The whole aesthetic of the country was delightful; from storefronts to back alleys, everything was so inviting. Ruins lay scattered or stood heroically around every corner, and the landscape was fantastic! While we were there, I did an ink painting each morning--something we could see from our hotel.

When we got back home, I was so excited that I devised a challenge: How quickly could I do 15 pieces of art, 3 written pieces, and at least one piece of music, all inspired by this trip to Italy? Ping said: "What if some of the music and writing went together with some of the art?" Yes!

Six weeks later, the art is done! Okay, mostly done; I still

"Amalfi Cliffs" acrylic on canvas - Final Version

I was very happy to discover that the acrylic paints are going to work for me! Here is the "Amalfi Cliffs" painting (175x255mm) in its final state:

For comparison, here's the under painting as it was left after the first session:

(Hmm...I think I'd better practice my signature next. It looks more like "MOLE" than "MCOLE.")

Italy Challenge: #1 "Ristorante, Venezia"

approx. 210 x 297mm - Soft Pastel on Fabriano Tiziano

We floated past this lovely back door to the canal in Venice last month. This one was a stretch for me: subject matter and paper color I don't normally work with. It's the first of a series of 15 images from that trip to Italy, most of them in soft pastels. (I have 4 more to go.) For some reason it seems only fitting that I should paint Italian scenes on Fabriano paper. :)