On the way to Venice

When you are your own travel agent,

you are bound to make a mistake now and then.

On our way to Venice from Tuscany,

we drove and drove for hours on tiny mountain trails. 

We ended up on a mountain top where fine Arabian Horses are bred.  

 In fact, Andrea Bocelli owns one of their Arabians. 

Traveler recommendations were so positive that I reserved two nights. 

We stayed one night. I could not sleep one more night on that precipitous mountain side. 

I listened most of the night to rumbles (imagined) of the earth. 

We gladly forfeited one night's stay. 

Yes, our next stopover had room for us even though we were one day early. 

In the small hamlet of Pra, 

near the university town of Este, 

we found Acienda Agricola Marin, a 16th century country villa. 

Even with battle scenes covering every wall I slept just fine. 

Because the land was flat as a pancake.

 The breakfast room walls were covered with battle scenes of yore.  

I found this charming little scene in one of the dark corridors. 

So many details, so much material for future projects. 

Acienda Agricola Marin in still a working Farm.  
The villa is hidden behind tall ancient walls.  

A country church, across the lane, chimes the hours. 

Just the way I like it.  

Gina

https://betweennapsontheporch.net/

https://normandylife.blogspot.com/

Color

I'm back

Could you sleep in this room?  

I could and I did. 

I live with a lot of color.

Every single day.

So happy to see that frost has not yet come.

It's great to be back.

But I got so used to having Gelato every afternoon. 

Did you know that Gelato contains less cream and more milk and sometimes no eggs at all? It is churned at a lower speed, hence is denser and has more flavor. 

Have a wonderful week dear friends. 

Gina

Easy Textures you can do

With materials from the Home Improvement Store

This lonely little kitchen corner, in our Guest Cottage,  needed a bit of "interest".

This lonely little walk into my cellar needed a little humph.

My kitchen walls needed texture.  Straw from a nearby field was the ticket. 

The hall fireplace needed a textured chimney piece.

The entrance hall needed a stone wall. 

Empty spaces above windows needed a trumeau.

The "Fresco" to the Cellar.


In a hallway of the Castello Estense, Ferrara, Italy, you can admire an ancient Fresco at close quarters. 


What a surprise!  Except for the image, my frescoes have the same texture and appearance as those that I have painted and have shared with my students at our local college workshop.

All of the above examples I have created with dry wall compound  and builders sand.  

Here is how to paint a fresco swag.

Mix 12 cups of builders sand with one box of dry wall compound.

Apply with trowel in broad strokes (not circles). 

Let dry, draw design onto wall with acrylic paints.

Note: You can use a stencil if you're not sure of your success in free hand painting.

When dry, cover (yes) your art work with a thin layer of your dry wall mixture. Let dry. Wet an ordinary kitchen sponge and scrub across the parts you want to reveal or " bring out".  

Last layer, mix dark beer with colorant (artist gouache, universal tints, or dirty paint water) and with large soft brush, cover the entire surface.  Use colors such as burnt umber and burnt sienna for an antique look. 

See what you can do?  

Have a wonderful weekend my dear 

Blogging Friends,

Gina 

An Ornamentalist's Goldmine

The Wartburg Castle, replete with drawbridge, dungeon, towers and castlekeep, overlooks the town of Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. The Castle was founded in 1067. UNESCO added the Wartburg to the World Heritage List as one of the outstanding monuments of the Feudal Period of Central Europe.




Martin Luther lived here for a short while in 1521; long enough to translate the New Testament from the original Greek into German. Luther was hiding, he had been excommunicated by Pope Leo X.



Moritz von Schwind (1838-1890) painted these wonderful Frescoes in the Rittersaal and in the Saengersaal, Hall of the Knights and Hall of the Minstrels, respectively.


Richard Wagner used this setting as inspiration for his famous Tannhauser.
Gina visited the Castle, as a young girl, on a school outing while still living in East Germany. At the time it was pointed out that the Devil had appeared to Martin Luther. Luther threw his ink well at the Devil leaving a large ink spot on the wall.
For years visitors would leave with a souvenir from the Middle Ages. The devil ink spot was reconstituted many times. And after all of this deceit, the story is only a legend. It never happened.
Gina, again, visited the Wartburg, this time as a citizen of the Great United States of America. Only this time she slept in the grand suite of the "Hotel at the Wartburg".

Gina