Some time ago during an evening of conversation, a friend of mine and I tossed around the idea of how fun it would be to do a, just girls, road trip. But where to? Route 66 spilled out of my mouth, we looked at each other, wickedly laughed, and the wheels were set in motion, Route 66, the
We decided, we needed a third partner in crime so Mary Jane asked her friend Nancy, she was excited on the idea. We decided to take this trip the following May, a year to map it out, to stay true to the road and all that is still in existence from that era.
Mary Jane, the ultimate planner, subscribed to Route 66 magazine, we bought books on the subject, read and compared notes and mapped it all out, while our husbands just laughed and shook their heads.
Late the following April, we gathered in Michigan at Mary Jane’s ready to start our adventure form Chicago to LA, one month to do it.
We packed our car, not the idolized Corvette which none of us had, but the more comfortable, moderate SUV, after all, we needed room for our favorite pillows.
On May 1st, set to go we said our goodbyes, Mary Jane turned left out of the driveway, the expressway was to the right, this provided much laughter for our husband for months to come.
Our plan was to start the trip at
I have decided to do a body of work about this trip, I won’t promise to stay in geographical order with the paintings, but it will be a great trip.
So come with me on Route 66……………
Finished the copy project today, it was such a wonderful learning experience. I had previously said that the orighingal was in the Prado, but later found out that is actually in the Sorolla Museum. One obervation and thought about his work is that I believe that the richness of color and the brightness of his paintings are a direct result of painting under the Mediteranean sun. I definately will do more master copies in the future, but for now back to daily painting.
I have fallen a bit behind on my painting a day, I finished the large sunflower commission and than started another large painting. I have become very interested in and excited by the works of Joaquin Sorolla. The wonderful lightness of his paintings and the subtle changes within the colors is amazing. I decided to do a copy of his painting "Del Bano," in about half the original size of 70x44. I have undertaken this project in hopes of learning more about color range and to expand my own pallette by trying to achieve the same colors and values as tha Sorolla used in his painting. I am using an internet copy of the original which hangs in the Prado in Madrid. I hope to one day see the original, but in the mean time I thank Sorrolla for his wonderful and beautiful works. I will update my progress in the next few days and share some of what I hope to learn from this undertaking.
