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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Painting The Amalfi Coast of Italy-Fishing Boats at Cetara

      In April of 2015 I spent eleven days painting on the  Amalfi Coast of Italy, based in the town of Maiori.  It is centrally located as far as traveling east on the peninsula as far as Positano or west to Salerno by bus. The bus company "Sita"  stop was a couple hundred meters from our apartment, including the 100 meters our apartment was  set back from the main road, enough to subdue the sounds of traffic, yet provide a peekaboo view of the waterfront from the terrace. The road along the cost is SS163 and is known as the road of 1000 curves as it hugs the steep coastline. The bus blows its horn around every curve and traffic from the opposite direction often has to back up so the bus can squeeze by. While this common event was taking place the motorcycle traffic would  zoom around the bus and squeeze through the  small opening between the bus front and the cars in reverse. Bus fare was 1.2 euro each way for any distance, and the town of Amalfi (20 minute ride east from Maiori) was a transfer point to get a bus to Positano (the last town directly on the coast) or to the much farther package tour city of Sorrento. Amalfi also was the  boarding point for the jet ferry boat trips to the Isle of Capri or Isle  d'Ischia (20 euro each way and an hour each way-last ferry back 5 pm).
      On the second Sunday of our stay we went to the fishing village of Cetara, which is west, about half the way to Salerno, the latter being the  capital of the the province of Campania. We were in the hallway to the elevator on our 3rd floor  and out came our rental landlord with a box of pastries  with the sign, "Have a happy Sunday".  He is a Computer Science Professor at the University in Salerno and was on his way there so he offered a ride to Cetara when he heard that was our destination for the day. That saved us the wait for the bus and  the conversation  on way provided more local knowledge,
Modeling at Cetara
      My painting for the day was some of the fishing boats. A funny thing happened while painting. At one point I looked up and saw a photo shoot  a few yards down the dock. Earlier I had the noise of a photographer who apparently solicited visiting couples to purchase a photo shoot. He had three different couples while I was there, and was a very noisy when shouting acrobatic poses for the couples to assume. But this shoot looked like an aspiring model (or perhaps an established one), with  a full camera crew. After the two photos shown I got back to being absorbed with my painting and lost track of the model shoot. Then I felt a presence near the easel and looked up to see the couple standing by my easel. So I was now part of the backdrop. If you happen to see me in an Italian copy of Vogue, you will know the story.
Modeling at Cetara 2
Cetara Fishing Boats, 11 x 14 inches oil on canvas

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