Florence in Tuscany

 Here's a few of my favorite photos of our stop in Florence. We spent 4 days walking around the historic city center taking in all the great architecture and shops. Not to mention tasting a lot of great food along the way. My traveling partner Karen arranged a half day tour to several artist workshops exposing us to some master artisians. We had both been to Florence before (me almost 50 years ago) so we chose not to stand in line for the big galleries and sites and dug a little deep.

My first painting of Florence the Ponte Santa Trinita. over Arno River

Ponte Vecchio

Evening sky line

Wine Windows from the Past

Negroni an italian apertitivo

Every corner has a gelato shop

Fresh orange juice at the market

Preparing for the lunch crowd

Cheese and deli counter

Street Artists

Gallery show Helen Frankenthaler

 

Chapel artwork

Street musician

Modes of travel, bike and elevator tube

                                                    

Frame restoration business

Just another highend vendor

Custom made frames on the premises

Fancy perfumery

Mosaic Workshop

Mosaic like a painting

Leather Artisian

Exotic materials

Paper store

Marbeling paper demo

Arrivederci

Two weeks in Tuscany

Morning view in the Tuscan countryside getting ready to paint

 Still resetting my internal clock back to Central Time after a couple of weeks in Italy. By the end of this year you'll probably be tired of hearing about the trip. I'm currently going through over 2000 photos to make sense of it all. I'm planning a show in Oct. of 2025 that will be held at Elmaro called From Tuscany to Trempealeau. After I assemble my blog and get to organize my thoughts, the details will be revealed.

New Guerilla Painter 8x10 Cigar Box setup for Traveling

In order to paint I had to consider several factors. Luggage space and transportation, Regulations on taking products through TSA and making sure to have time to paint. It was important to get my color notes for future paintings from photographs. I did six plein air paintings while there and numerous sketches.

Fortunately all went well and no surprises or mishaps. My souvenir treat to myself was a visit to an art store in Florence. I looked up where to go to buy some solvent for my painting days and discovered Zecchi's . I purchased a wooden box full or dry pigments to experiment with in the future.

Best present ever, set of dry Pigments & Earths

Florences oldest Art Supply Store since 1300. Under new ownership of course.

Hope you'll enjoy the upcoming series of blogs covering Florence and many small cities in the countryside. Plus a lot of local artist workshops.

In the meantime I'll be catching up on some commissions before the holidays in my studio.

Colleen

Time in Tuscany