Painting The Amalfi Coast, Maiori Italy

Collegiate di Santa Maria a Mare

Maiori, was our home base for touring the Amalfi Coast of Italy form April 10 to 22, 2015. The above painting of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Sea  is the back view as it sits on the edge of a cliff. I did a complete en plein air  pretty much as shown, but repainted on top of it back home in the studio to correct architectural features. I was standing on the edge of a bank's  hot asphalt parking lot off a side street on a warm day. The clock shows 1:20 pm (1320 European time). I also had a 

steady pain in my head and right side of my face (3 on a scale of 10) all day, perhaps related to my intermittent occurrences of trigeminal neuralgia.  It took a while to find this view. My first attempt a few days earlier I approached the church from a side street that led me up 200 steps to the right of the clock tower. Then when I  got to the front of the church I walked down the road used by the public to access it. I turned  around every now and then to check the view without luck.  Finally the road curved and  I came upon a soccer stadium for kids (maybe age 8 to 10). I could see that there would be a good view from the bleachers but the gate was locked.  After all that hiking pulling my painting equipment cart I was not giving up. I found an entrance door to the office section where there was a woman and man attendant (maybe in their 50's). They did not speak any English so I took out a canvas and paint brush and said I wanted to paint the Collegiate. The man made a phone call to someone in authority who spoke English and handed the phone to me. After explaining my objective  I gave the phone back to the attendant and he got the OK to let me in. Let me say that through the entire trip I found the locals to be very helpful  and interested. My wife and daughter have  a few favorably stories  about friendliness also. About  an hour into the painting  the kids showed up for practice (that's another story) along with parents and relatives who sat in the bleachers.  While I was a curiosity only a couple kids came over to peek. That painting was not a success. Even the best plein air artists who write the books state that only four out of five make it to the frame, the rest are used for reference for studio paintings. I saw the above view in a 1 inch  square photo in a brochure and was able to deduce  the location which turned out to be right in front of the little hardware store some locals walked me to when I was asking where I could purchase odorless mineral spirits. The very first day in Maiori, without having mineral spirits (airline restrictions) to clean the fast drying alkyd oils from my brush, I painted with watercolors. Below is my first painting of a small church  in Maiori and a pen and ink wash of a large home on top of a cliff above the main road SS163.

Church in Maiori
This church had no name on Google maps but it appears on the map to be attached to a rectangular structure ( on the left) with a central court yard area, perhaps a convent or school.

The structure (mansion) on the cliff is at the east end of Maiori  and  is also not identified on Google Maps, but Google has some great photos. Normally all churches and hotels are identified on Google maps. I sat on a bench at the end of the beach promenade in a nice shady spot and did the pen and ink drawing followed by a watercolor wash.  The main road along the Amalfi Coast (SS163), the road with a 1000 curves, can be seen rising at about a 15 degree angle. There is a traffic light at the bottom of this section and one at the top as traffic on this section is one way because  it is so narrow. This is the only traffic light  from the beginning of the coastal road near Salerno , all the way to Positrano, and perhaps further but we did not travel past Positranio by bus. While painting an Italian couple (upscale) from Rome stopped to see my painting. He spoke English but she did not appear to. He  took out his smart phone and proceeded to show me all his abstract watercolor paintings which were pretty good. It was only a hobby he said. I guess he was still employed. My trigeminal neuralgia was knocking the right side of my face at about a level 7 out of 10 and I was doing this because  I  was unfamiliar with the door lock on the apartment and could not let myself in. My wife and daughter had hopped the bus to Amalfi on this first day in Maiori.

Painting on Capri Italy, Amalfi Coast

Marina Grande Capri (16x20 inches oil)

Not much time left for painting on Capri when you consider the bus ride from Maiori to Amalfi where  you take the ferry to the island of Capri. The jet ferry takes and hour (20 euro each way), the bus trip to Amalfi 20 minutes, and add waiting time for the bus and ferry. Then on arrival at Marina Grande you walk a few hundred meters to purchase tickets for the funicular to get up the cliff, and also wait your turn to get on it. Ferries arrive from Sorrento, Naples and Amalfi, which increases the queues. You then have to know where the painting sights that  interest you are and walk or take a bus. First you are a little hungry and dry, so you need to find some pastry and coffee or  maybe a gelato. In our case we wandered down one road that led to the service industries for the Island. The good part of that was finding a hardware store and  purchasing a hex head wrench to tighten up the steering mechanism on my daughters 4 wheel scooter (for someone with a broken ankle and a cast on their leg). Having been there in 2005, I knew I wanted to head toward the Gardens of Augustus, a 15 minute walk from where you get off the funicular. Another good painting spot is in the islands second village, Anacapri (by bus) and pay a modest entry fee into Villa San Michele. This was the onetime home of Axel Muthe (1857-1949), a Swedish physician and author of the best selling "Story of San Michele (1929). I read the book for my 2005 trip. I recall it was translated into 38 different languages. Capri has long been a retreat for emperors, artists, writers, and the international jet set and today gets hordes of day-trippers.
The above painting ( circa 2010) was based on my 2005 trip to Capri, as  one stop on a tour of Italy.
At that time I also did a watercolor study of the cliff view from Gardens of Augustus and a remembrance sketch while waiting for lunch to be served. Both appear below.

Watercolor study, Cliffs from Garden of Augustus

Remembrance Sketch

Below is  my 2010 watercolor study from the Gardens of Augustus. The sail boat happened by at just the right moment for me to size it. Also shown is  a photo, courtesy of my daughter, of a jet setter (?), documenting in a movie me as part of her vacation  visit to Capri. I was engrossed and while aware of the presence of onlookers  in my peripheral vision I rarely look up unless they speak to me. I have lots of inspirational photos for some studio paintings.

From the Gardens of Augustus

Becoming a movie  for someones vacation

A long movie.

Painting Italy's Amalfi Coast, Villa Rufolo in Ravello

 At Villa Rofolo, Ravello Italy

I en plein air painted at the Villa Rufolo in the town of Ravello on Italy's Amalfi Coast. It was a misty day when I started the painting but cleared by the time  I finished. At that point I recognized the Town of Maiori below, where we had rented an apartment for our 12 day stay. The  Umbrella Pine tree and  twin towers were my main interest and a variety of views of this scene can be found on postcards and in travel media. A large group of teen students entered the Villa at the same time as I did (as well as many other tourists).  A group of six or so boys, ages 13 to 14 decided to sit on a shaded concrete bench six feet from my easel and were very talkative. They left after 20 minutes but came back a half hour later, still talkative. One who spoke English was very inquisitive and like the kids surrounding me when I painted the Salerno Duomo, wanted to know where I was from, how much the painting would cost, and so on.  Below is the finished painting. The  13th century Villa and  it's 11th century cathedral  is one of two villas that the town is famous for. It hosted  guests that included popes and emperors.

My finished painting 11x14 inches oil on canvas

The umbrella pine tree also known as a stone pine, is native to the Mediterranean region. It produces an edible pine nut and evidence indicates they have been cultivated for their nuts for  6000 years. The trees are typically 12-20 meters (39-66 feet)  but can reach 25 meters or 82 feet. This was an older tree as the reddish bark had turned dark.
The bus ride from Maiori to Amalfi takes about twenty minutes and just before Amalfi we got off to wait for a bus to take up the hill to Ravello. My wife and daughter  are pictured at the stop. I was checking the posted bus schedule and said  out loud " I wonder when the next bus will come"? A gentleman nearby said about an hour. He was fibbing,  as I later noticed him standing next to his taxi.
For years I have been a subscriber to International Artist Magazine and receive a brochure on their artist/instructor  led travel/paint  trips. I always wanted to take one, so I modeled our trip after one they offered, including the time of year. However we spent all 12 days on the Amalfi Coast, rather than going to Sicily for the last 6 days. The magazine sponsored trip included some tours that would reduce my painting time and I did not want to paint totally in watercolor. The point in mentioning this is  that after I was painting the above scene for an hour or so, I looked down at the observation level below me and  the organized group had appeared. See picture below. When I  had packed up they were finishing what was quite a short visit. One of the participating gentlemen saw me and introduced himself a one of as group of Australians taking a painting trip. At that point the instructor passed by and I got an introduction as someone who had read about him. I added up the total cost for the three of us for our trip and it was about $500 more than I alone would have spent for the guided trip.

Wife and daughter waiting for the bus.

A formal instructor led painting group.