Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tiny Italian Village


I missed posting last night due to an internet outage. Oh well. Let us proceed. This little picture of an Italian village is one of the earliest pictures in my catalog. I have kept a catalog of every piece of art (and some By-Products) that I've ever done. I started in late 1976 or perhaps early 1977 with, uh, number 1. What was Number 1? A small watercolor sketch of Michael Moorcock's Elric, leaping up with his black demon sword held high. But I don't have a picture of it. I know who bought it, and I think he lost it many years ago in one of his many relocations.

I try to have a picture of every one of my catalog pieces, and I mostly do. That's what I've been transcribing so diligently from slides these last years. Now I am delving back into my earliest files, things done in the late 1970s when I was still a hapless graduate student. This piece is number 5a in my arcane outline-based numbering system. The ideal Italian village depicted here was from recent memory as I had just come back from living a year in Italy. A friend asked me to do a picture of an Italian mountain village and so I created this miniature scene for her.

I believe I am now working on painting number 996. With luck, I should reach number 1000 this year.

"Italian Village" is ink and watercolor on Fabriano paper, about 8" x 3", 1977.

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