The Cats of Italy, Number 3

On the Friday of our week at The Watermill at Posara, our hosts took us to the village of Monte dei Bianchi, the home of an old monastery.  We were surrounded by old stone buildings of every shape and age, flowers everywhere, and mountain vistas.  Every direction you looked, a beautiful scene you wanted to paint awaited you.  However, we didn’t spend a lot of time painting there, just long enough for a demo by Keiko Tanabe and a little watercolour sketch by me, in the yard by the monastery.

My tiny sketch. I made sure to include the ever-present swifts.  Not the best photo, but you get the idea!

Then we explored a little bit.

While the village seemed mostly devoid of people (or perhaps they were just indoors on the hot day!), we did find this independent seeming cat who led us around.  Here, in this latest of my series of The Cats of Italy, she seems to be beckoning to us from down the slope of this alley, to follow her out into the sunshine and see the part of the village that faces the valley below.  Which is exactly what we did.  This cat may be featured twice in my series!  More painting-worthy scenes awaited us there.

Cat of Monte Dei Bianchi. Watercolour on Paper. 15×22″. Artist Lianne Todd. $475.00

After we said our goodbyes to the cat, we walked down the road to the Ristorante Al Vecchio Tino for a gourmet lunch.  It was delicious, and way too much food!  It seemed like it would be a very pleasant and peaceful place to stay.

If you’d like to see this painting and the other Cats of Italy I’ve done so far, in person, put the weekend of May 5 & 6 on your calendar if you’re in Southwestern Ontario.  We have the Oxford Studio Tour happening that weekend and I’ll be welcoming everyone into my gallery/studio to view my paintings and my digital fractal art.  I am at Location #4.  Hope to see you – please let me know if you regularly read my blog!  Also I’m terrible at remembering names and faces, so if we’ve met before, please remind me.

Here I am with Cats of Lucca… photo credit for this one goes to Jeff Tribe.  Thanks Jeff!

Me, with Cats of Lucca

Oh, and one more thing – you still have until April 30 to vote for my paintings or any others you choose to vote for on Facebook in the People’s Choice Awards album for the entries into the Symphony of Watercolour Exhibition that is coming this fall to Richmond Hill, Ontario.  It is a joint exhibition of the International Watercolour Society of Canada (IWS Canada) and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC).