3 Members/3 Friends/1 Vision to capture on canvas our history. Helen Tilston, Mary Rose Holmes and Violetta Chandler have been painting together for the past 20 years. All three represented the USA at the juried invitational Florence Biennale in Firenze, Italy. Florida Trust for Historic Preservaton award. a Victoria Magazine, 2019 Two documentary Save Our Cottages Artists with a cause and a second Canvas with a Cause aired on PBS 2020.
Italy - A soft spot in our hearts
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Painting outside our little Inn
Planning our next venture
Beside where we stay in Venice
Italy is like a second home for the three of us. We have a path worn to Tuscany and Venice and we are always looking forward to our next trip.
When we travel as three painters and friends, we are very serious about painting and it takes priority. Our needs are simple, we love to travel, love to dress beautifully and love to paint.
Recently a 16 days trip found us flying into Venice and painting for 6 days which was in a way a little too short. We stayed at our favourite little Inn in the Dorsoduro region, which is perfect, climb down the stairs, stumble on to the sidewalk and set up the easels and so many motifs to choose. A typical day finds us up at dawn, out walking, sketching and taking pictures and looking at the sunrise. Early breakfast and by 9.30 we are set up and painting. We usually paint two to three small studies each day. We all love to walk and explore and naturally some shopping. Museums, churches, galleries are high on the list.
This vista is one of our favourites and is literally outside our door
Mary Rose is set and has found some shade
Violetta has chosen to sit by the canal and paint. The little girl is mesmerized
A stunning garden where we paint
No trip is complete without a gondola ride and being serenaded
Dinner at our favourite restaurant
Dinner with friends Esther, Mark and international film crew who joined us
The picture I obtained from their web site does not adequately portray it.
Lunch is usually simple, a salad and share sandwiches. Dinner is always special and we have many wonderful places to choose from in our area. One favourite is Antica Locanta Montin, the garden is spectacular. It is a great spot for both lunch and dinner.
Back on board the vaporette, destination: Venice Airport. This time we pick up our car rental and decide who shall be the designated driver for our journey to Greve in Chianti and our castle for he next ten days, Castellovicchio Maggio.
Next week I we shall tell you all about our adventures and there are many!
Have you been to Italy? What are your favourite areas?
Hello Helen How wonderful to be doing something you are passionate about, in beautiful surroundings, and in the company of dear friends. Your post makes me want to reach for my passport and head off to the airport..... of course I would have to learn to paint too! Abby x
hello there- I've seen your name in the comments box of many blogs I follow and have smiled at your remarks so thought I'd come over and see who you are.
How lovely your blogs are, how skillful your art work; I've spent pleasant time looking at everything and am now ready to resume my housework ;(
Hope that you're having a good weekend- apart from the aforementioned housework, everything is grand here on a perfectly sunny English morning xx
Such idyllic lives, Helen! Somehow I imagine you and your artist friends in sepia, taking it all at a slower, more graceful pace than the rest of us, interspersed with flashes of painterly colour. The Verona Opera Festival is my own favourite memory of Italy - absolutely wonderful to sit on the warm stone steps by candlelight as the arias soar about us.
oh, helen, what memories. we were in rome and surrounding areas a couple of years ago and fell in love. I want to go back!
you asked about the artist whose studio I featured today - there should be a link in my text but if you are unable to access it, please visit www.acollageaday.blogspot.com. I really like his work!
Hello My Spotty Pony It is indeed a joy to travel with Mary Rose and Violetta and our days are always very special and somehow we always manage to have an adventure and fun stories You are so close to Italy, it must be tempting to slip away. Thanks for visiting Helenxx
Hello Ted and Bunny So lovely to hear from you and I, too, have seen your name kindly comment on blogs It is such a special joy to connect with like minded friends from all over the world I am enjoying your blog and wishing you a lovely weekend. Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog and your comments we treasure. Helen
Hello Mise, You are right indeed some of our days are in sepia tones but it does not last long as we burst into colour. Verona sounds very special Mise, I have not been but will make a note. We did attend the opera at Le Fenice which was magical and a dream come true. Italy is so accessible to Ireland with Ryanair, it must be awfully tempting.
Bon Giorno Donna and thanks you for your pleasant visit. Italy is so special and yes, you must return. Thanks for letting me know about the artist you featured. I am just going to pop over to your blog in a second. Wishing you a weekend full of joy Helen
Helen Tilston painting Guppy's Indian Rocks Beach A favourite expression of my mother's is: "if a job is worth doing; it is worth doing well" and "no one will ask how long it took to complete a job but they will ask who did it" words of Kathleen Bohannon Glynn. As you will recall from a previous post RCS Helps The Gift of Food selected us as the artist for their fundraising card. Thank you to all who have generously donated, including followers and one specifically namely Carolynn Cecilia who blogs under The Anchor and the Bird . Imagine my surprise to open her blog and note she carried my posting on RCS Helps. Carolynn Cecilia began her "Days of Deeds" this past May and planned to do one good deed daily for 31 days and to her surprise she could not stop here. Carolyn Cecilia and I have not met but have become friends through blogging and I am always happy to see her new post. Carolyn Cecilia you are person of such integrity and h...
Mary Rose Holmes at the entrance to her beach cottage with Artist Violetta Mary Rose painting en plein air Violetta and Mary Rose painting en plein air Hello Again, Please step inside my home, have some iced tea and pecan pie and I shall tell you a story. Mary Rose Holmes majored in Fine Art. During her time at college the emphasis and style was certainly modern. Students were encouraged to used bold slashes of colour in a minimal fashion, which Mary Rose did. Returning home during college break, she would boldly present her modern ideas to her father (a collector of original realistic and impressionistic art) and imply that he should move along with the times. Her father Algenon Speer, a Fifth generation Floridian defence attorney living in a small town in Florida had his own ideas about art. He tried cases in various areas and during his travels back in the 50's he stumbled upon some black artists who sold their paintings on the roadside, out...
Violetta, Mary Rose and Helen paint a triptych (The Plein Aire Cottage Artists - Mary Rose Holmes, Helen Tilston and Violetta (Shtumeyzen Chandler) - we have been painting together for eleven years. Recently they got into creating triptychs, (pronounced trip' ticks) or three-paneled paintings. Each artist paints a third of the scene and when they put the three finished pieces together, they create a cohesive and colorful whole. It's a special kind of teamwork for artists. "Starting in the 1980s, a lot of artists learned to work collaboratively, so there's a precedent," said Lynn Whitelaw, director of the Leepa-Ratner Museum in Largo, who is familiar with the Plein Aire artists. "But I don't know of three artists that have worked together like these three do." There is a certain harmony among them that transcends style. "They share the same aesthetic," Whitelaw observed. "Their styles are complementary, but each i...
Hello Helen
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to be doing something you are passionate about, in beautiful surroundings, and in the company of dear friends.
Your post makes me want to reach for my passport and head off to the airport..... of course I would have to learn to paint too!
Abby x
hello there-
ReplyDeleteI've seen your name in the comments box of many blogs I follow and have smiled at your remarks so thought I'd come over and see who you are.
How lovely your blogs are, how skillful your art work; I've spent pleasant time looking at everything and am now ready to resume my housework ;(
Hope that you're having a good weekend- apart from the aforementioned housework, everything is grand here on a perfectly sunny English morning
xx
Such idyllic lives, Helen! Somehow I imagine you and your artist friends in sepia, taking it all at a slower, more graceful pace than the rest of us, interspersed with flashes of painterly colour. The Verona Opera Festival is my own favourite memory of Italy - absolutely wonderful to sit on the warm stone steps by candlelight as the arias soar about us.
ReplyDeleteoh, helen, what memories. we were in rome and surrounding areas a couple of years ago and fell in love. I want to go back!
ReplyDeleteyou asked about the artist whose studio I featured today - there should be a link in my text but if you are unable to access it, please visit www.acollageaday.blogspot.com. I really like his work!
all my best, helen...donna
Hello My Spotty Pony
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed a joy to travel with Mary Rose and Violetta and our days are always very special and somehow we always manage to have an adventure and fun stories
You are so close to Italy, it must be tempting to slip away.
Thanks for visiting
Helenxx
Hello Ted and Bunny
ReplyDeleteSo lovely to hear from you and I, too, have seen your name kindly comment on blogs It is such a special joy to connect with like minded friends from all over the world
I am enjoying your blog and wishing you a lovely weekend.
Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog and your comments we treasure.
Helen
Hello Mise,
ReplyDeleteYou are right indeed some of our days are in sepia tones but it does not last long as we burst into colour. Verona sounds very special Mise, I have not been but will make a note. We did attend the opera at Le Fenice which was magical and a dream come true.
Italy is so accessible to Ireland with Ryanair, it must be awfully tempting.
Is mise
Helen
Bon Giorno Donna and thanks you for your pleasant visit.
ReplyDeleteItaly is so special and yes, you must return.
Thanks for letting me know about the artist you featured. I am just going to pop over to your blog in a second.
Wishing you a weekend full of joy
Helen