A China Sketchbook Number 1

A number of years ago my wife and I took a trip in China which included Shanghai, a cruise up the Yangtze River, Xi'an  and Beijing. It was a group trip so my sketching time was limited but I did manage a few and subsequently did a few studio painting when we returned back to the U.S.
The Yangtze River was the most relaxing part of the trip. At one point we were transferred to a smaller boat  for a trip up one of the tributaries. Here are the sketches from that, simple, but nice remembrances.

Day 10:Just below Badong at the end of Xiling Gorge

 We passed the construction of several of these bridges , all of the same design. The rising water levels in the Yangtze River and its tributaries was in progress and we were told the Yangtze would go up 30 more meters.











The tower on the right was perched at the top of  one of

Unnamed Tower (Temple?)

 the cliffs

The Dragon River on the way to Snow Jade Cave, Feng Du

.Only three or four of our large group opted for the long hike above the Dragon river to the Snow Jade Cave. Others (including my wife Louise) visited a local village and market. Here are a few pictures of our guide and the Snow Jade cave. I got her to pose and smile when I said I wanted a picture of the mountain but it would be just another mountain unless there was a pretty girl in the picture.

More  China sketches and pics in my next blog. It is time to go to the studio now and paint.

Painting in Cinque Terre 2

The first destination for my November 2015  painting trip to Italy was to Cinque Terre (five lands). I managed to do some paintings in Monterosso, Manarola, and  Riomaggiore. You can spend a lot of time waiting for trains and then exploring the towns dragging your painting equipment cart up and down a lot of steps and over cobblestone roads, passageways, and trails.
I do have some great photos as inspiration for studio paintings at my "Studio on the Narrows" which overlooks the St Lawrence River at the narrows, just a short distance  down river from the US span of the 1000 Islands Bridge. The bridge from the US mainland  spans to Wellesley Island and then in 4 miles to Hill Island Ontario before reaching the Canadian mainland.
Studio paintings from photos bring back memories, impressions, and sensations, of the subjects,  and with these and the plein air paintings and sketches. I hope to put the feelings I had in Italy into the paintings.
Below is my painting of part of the harbor at Vernazza. To the right is me painting. A gentleman asked if it was all right to take a picture of me. I said OK. When he finished I asked him to take one with my camera and he and his wife laughed with amusement over the tic for tac. I could not help grinning myself. Set up an easel anywhere in the world where there are tourists  and you become part of their photo trip photo album, usually without asking permission. My daughter walked the coastal trail to Corniglia and back while i painted.

Harbor at Vernazza 11x14 oil plein air

Painting at Vernazza

Last Light Monterosso 11 x 15 Studio Watercolor

Above is a watercolor studio painting with touches of gouache for detail and  pastel to provide  some definition of the trees in shadow. We always took the train back to our home base in Monterrosa at the end of the day in time to get to our favorite restaurant about 7 pm (1900) for dinner.  The train station was about a 15 minute walk from the restaurant in the wrong direction, so that left us with a half hour walk to get to our rental house. The last 12 minutes of the walk was uphill. It was a good way to walk off the carbs from dinner. Below left is a photo by my daughter of me and my painting cart heading home after dinner.

 Monterosso walk  after dinner to get to rental house.

Below left is me walking the coastal  trail from Monterosso to Corniglia to check views for next day painting possibilities after having painting and lunching at Riomaggiore that morning. My bag that hold supplies and easel parts is held to the cart by bunji cords. Sometimes the bag slips enough to drag one corner and before I notice I have ground another hole in it. Also  shown below is a photo of the rock formation on the trail close to Manarola. Looks like it was formed by getting pushed up by the tectonic plate action millions of years ago. See my online gallery at robert-p-hedden.pixels.com and select Galleries to see all my Itlay related paintings.

Rock formation on the trail to Corniglia near Manarola

Dragging the painting cart  on the trail from Manarola to Corniglia

Painting in Italy's Cinque Terre 1

This is one of several posts describing my painting experiences on a November 2015 trip to Italy's Cinque Terre region and also the Tuscany region.We arrived at our Monterroso rental villa late at night, after a 2 1/2  hour drive from the Florence Airport, quite tired from the long flights and airport waits for connecting flights from upstate New York to Washington DC Dulles Airport, then to Brussels and finally to Florence. The next day we drove down to the commercial section of Monterosso, parked (2 euro per hour) and walked the town to find groceries and look for a store to purchase mineral spirits for cleaning my paint brushes before I could use my fast drying alkyd oils (no luck). The next morning I did a watercolor of our rental house and it's beautiful  garden. While painting, a helicopter arrived overhead and eventually landed on the hillside of the adjacent property. We thought perhaps a well off vacationer or resident was arriving first class.  Shortly afterwards the helicopter started transporting large sacks of olives to another section of the property-perhaps to a olive oil press. This continued for an hour or more with electric power lines not to far from the drop spot. My painting of our rental and a picture of the helicopter are below.

Transporting Olive Sacks

Monterosso Cinque Terre Villa

After my painting, we were following a lead to a store that might have the mineral  spirits. It was farther walk than we had taken the day before as we did not realize that there was a lot more of Monterroso further up the main walk along the waterfront. We found the store near the church as we were told, however their solvents were not what I needed.  We did some more exploratory walking and when heading back to the train station we passed under the bridge for the railroad tracks, There was an watercolor artist seated on a bench painting away, with some of his work taped to the bridge wall and displayed in a collapsible display rack. I showed him my note in Italian and English for mineral spirits and asked where to buy it. He spoke very good english and is from Croatia. He said he had a can of odorless mineral spirits that he had no need for and would bring it tomorrow at 1 pm, his normal time for arriving at his painting spot. We were there the next day at 1 but  he had forgot it. He asked where we might be having dinner that night and said he would bring it then. Our planned dinner spot was just about 50 meters from his painting spot. He happened along at 7 pm just as we arrived at the restaurant. Turns out  he would carry a portfolio  of paintings and enter the restaurants to ask the dinners if they would like to see some paintings. He told us he worked a 17 hour day, sketching the painting(s) on paper in the morning at his rental that he would paint under the bridge from 1 pm to 6 pm. He spent March to early November  in  the Cinque Terre towns before returning to Croatia.

Croatian  Artist in Cinque Terre

The next morning with mineral spirits in hand, we returned to Riomaggiore, the last of the 5  towns (most distant from Monterroso) which we had scouted out the previous afternoon. I had liked the harbour as a painting subject and  felt that  after I painted  there we could then explore  another town  for the next day's subject. Below is my painting, "Harbor at Riomaggiore". To purchase prints cards, and other items with my painting images see my website www.robert-p-hedden.artistwebsites.com

Harbor at Riomaggiore

Painting in the Chianti Region of Tuscany Italy 2

The Chianti Region  is dotted with Castles which usually have vineyards,and olive groves along with tasting/sales rooms.  Here is a photo of a sign in Gaiole of Chianti , "Pievie Castelli" or "Churches and Castles". Many potential painting spots for any future trip. On the far right and center for some reason the cell tower at  Monteluco is shown. Our rental house was a few km distance down hill from Monteluco and the tower was visible in the distance on the hill above us.

We got to visit  Castle Meleto  on a touring day when I was not painting but wish I was. Below are two pics of Meleto. We had a packed picnic lunch and ate it in a picnic grove  with many tables and from the cooking facilities and stored china appeared to be  place they catered in. There were many separate stone cottages which are rentals and they offer a breakfast service.

Castle Meleto

Castle Meleto

I got to paint at Castagnoli (previous blog) and Castle Brolio. Below is a photo of Brolio as it is approached by a lovely cypress avenue.. The  painting from Brolio was done from the the battlements overlooking the Aribia Valley and Chianti Hills. I enjoyed painting and picnic lunching from under the autumn colored tree seen in the photo at the center of the  battlement in the photo.
It was a Saturday and all the game hunters filled the wooded hills and valleys. All day I could hear the echoing sound of hunting hounds, yelling men driving game, and a lot of shooting. Wild boar, deer and small game were all in season.

Castle Brolio

View from Castle Brolio

 Down the hill about a 15 minute drive from our rental house in the Fietri wine cooperative is San Gusme, one of the regions most picturesque villages. We had dinner there in the same restaurant every night of our stay except Tuesday (their closed night) so we went to Gaiole. It was always dark at 5:30 pm and dinner started typically around 7:00 pm or later, so we  made it part of our touring day visits so we could enjoy it in the daylight.
Also below are a few pics of San Gusme and my sketches I did in  the old town Piazza G. Matteotti. The typical road signs in Chianti. Watch for fallen rocks which other cars tires can spit at you for the next 2.8 km. Sharp curves next next 1.7km. Second sign warns slippery when snow. The third sign warns of deer crossing and landslides. No signs for wild boar, but three crossed the road in front of us one dark night on the unpaved road into our Fietri rental. Saw a single cow sign but never saw the cow(s).

Chianti Road Signs

San Gusme Piazza G. Matteotti

San Gusme Cypress Trees thru the Vineyards

Old San Gusme  Section


The texture of the building walls revealed repairs over the centuries  to
include a variety of  materials right up to the red brick age. To  all my
Italy inspired paintings go to robert-p-hedden.artistswebsites.com         

Cafe in San Gusme'

Entrance to Home San Gusme'

Painting in the Chianti Region of Tuscany Italy

After a busy summer and fall of painting, plein air events, and art shows, at last there is a window of time to write about some of it. In early November I took a long dreamed about trip to Cinque Terre and then the Chianti Region of Tuscany to paint the enticing scenery. This blog will cover the Chianti Region. I was accompanied by my daughter who did all the driving and I did the navigation, being well armed with blown up  map segments previously researched on Google maps. Our rental house had wifi  which allowed us to do added research on the spot. On a 2D map the roads are all flat, In the hilly countryside of the Chianti Region you are always either driving uphill or downhill on two lane twisted roads that have a lot more turns than can be illustrated on the maps. Typical speed limit is 50 kilometer (32 miles per hour) and much slower on the switchback curves.We were passed by every local driver that ever got behind us but this did not disturb us and there were never any near collision for them.
   Our rental was in a remote hamlet called Fietri which housed 4 or 5 family residences and the office /tasting room for the Fietri Brand Chianti wines and olive oil. Fietri is about a mile up an unpaved road  which is located  1/2 way down from  another  hamlet called Monteluco and a small town San Gusme'. We had all but one of our evening meals in one of two restaurants in San Gusme'. They were closed on Tuesday night so we went a longer distance to the main town in the area, Gaiole in Chianti.
San Gusme' is one of the region's most picturesque villages with the historic section on a hill by itself and the newer contruction off to one side across the road. The Chianti area is located southeast of Florence and was an hour and a half drive from where we were staying to the Florence airport.

 To the left is a sketch of  our Fietri house rental.
We were in the portion on the left of the sketch. There was a nice garden on the left and to the rear with several seating and patio areas, a wood shed for the indoor fireplace and great views of mountains.

Below is a 10 x 14 watercolor of  a vineyard in it's fall colors which was a 100 yard walk  past the other  buildings in the hamlet.

Below is the street view past our rental house. It curves around the building to the right past more residences and squeezes down to about 12 feet between the buildings on each side. That section was lined with flowering potted plants. The local cat was shy at first but by the third day was greeting us  by rubbing against our legs.






Back in the 1970s the Chianti area winegrowers set some standards for high quality Chianti wine now labeled Classico and Classico Riserva, specifying where the grapes were grown and the variety and percentage of grapes used. These wines are found in the standard shape wine bottles for anyone with memories of the less expensive chianti in bottles with the basket around them, and now have a black rooster seal around the neck of the bottle. The rooster is  the symbol of the Chianti region and a sculpture of one can be found in many of the towns. The largest we saw was in Gaiole of Chianti. Photo below.

I painted several views of vineyards and olive groves.  The closest one to Fietri was from a nice road side benched area at Castagnoli which has a winery, tasting room and tour. My daughter toured the winery and made the drive further down to Gaiole of Chianti to shop and scout out a place for Tuesday evening dinner while I painted. Below is a picture of me at the painting site and the painting created. More  about  the Tuscany area and painting in the next blog.

Paintings From The Tug Hill area of NY

The Tug Hill area of New York State rises only 2000 feet at it highest point, but offers views of the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains and the Black River Valley with its rolling hills and farmland. Because of it's location just east of  Lake Ontario it get a large lake effect snowfall averaging 200 inches yearly. This is the highest lake effect snow fall anywhere in the northeast United States so it attracts snowmobiles and cross country skiers. The Tug Hill area covers portions of  four upstate New York  counties: Jefferson (my home but out of the boundaries), Lewis, Oneida and Oswego, defined in New York State law as encompassing 41 towns, with a total area of about 2,100 square miles (5,400 square kilometers). Other definitions range from 235 square miles to 800 square miles. Three towns included in my painting are so far are Watertown (Jefferson County), Lowville and Martinsburg (Lewis County). The paintings in this blog were inspired by the latter two areas.

Field of Golden Rod 14 x 24 inches oil studio

This studio painting was inspired by photos  I took on Corrigan Hill road. The road skirts the northern boundary of Whetstone Gulf State Park. From this point on the road a great view east of the Black River Valley is  also visible.  The road leads to the north ridge and south ridge trails along the gorge in  Whetstone Gulf Park, which I was on my way to for scouting out  views of the gorge in the park.

Whetstone Gulf State Park  Stream  9 x 12 oil plein air

Painted in mid September 2015  as one of our scheduled  Plein Air painters Thousand Islands Region (PAPTIR) paint outs.
Five participants of the group were in attendance. The bridge in the center left of the painting leads to a picnic area with a number of  curving and rocky stream scenes for future painting.

Whetstone Gulf State Park Gorge 24 inches by 36 inches oil studio

On a subsequent visit to Whetstone Gulf Park in October  2014, I hiked in with a painting buddy for about twenty five minutes over a rooted and rocky undulating trail  to this viewpoint of  the three mile long  gorge. Park literature describes it as one of  the most scenic vistas east of the Rock Mountains.  I did a plein air painting 11 x 14 inches of the view but it  was  only good enough for  a color reference along with photos to do this studio painting. Staring at the gorge for 3 hours while painting en plein air  embedded images in my memory which were not  really visible in the photos and were incorporated in the studio painting.

Amish Farm with  Plow and buggy horses 14 x 24 inches oil studio

Amish Farm Draft Horses 8 x 10 inch oil studio

This is a expanded version of the horse detail in the painting above.  The farm is on West Road, near Martinsburg. West Road is one way to approach  (or leave) Whetstone Gulf State Park when utilizing Route 12 to travel from or to the Watertown area and points north.  I stopped to take the photos to this and the farm painting below on my first visit to Whetstone Gulf State Park. More information and sale prices on these and other paintings can be found on my website at:
robert-p-hedden.artistwebsites.com

Paintings From The Adirondack Preserve NY

Painted en plein air on the way back from Old Forge NY where I picked up a painting I had in a show at THE VIEW. This section of the Moose River is about half way between McKeever NY and Port Leyden NY on Moose River Road, at the southern end of the Adirondack Preserve. The water level was high from recent rains and a deep green color in the shadowed area.. To get this view I had to sit on the bank of the river on a 45 degree slope on exposed tree roots. I used a piece of cardboard and a rain poncho to make a cushion. The dense thee foliage to my back shaded the canvas and made it hard to judge the values on the canvas. At one point I was greeted from behind by a father (Rochester NY) with his teenage daughter and her girl friend from Charlotte NC. They were on an excursion from their cabin a few miles away. He commented on the depth and speed of the water versus last year when they swam out to the rocks.

Moose River Rapids, Adirondacks 11 x 14 inch oil on panel