Grad School Oil Painting and Art History Courses in Italy

(This Blog post was migrated here from another Blog I maintained.)
This summer I was in Italy for a little more than seven weeks as part of Boston University's Masters in Art Education Program. I painted outside in the Tuscan countryside for more than eight hours a day, took an Italian Renaissance Art History course, and toured many cultural, artistic, and religious sites in the Florence area and around Tuscany. I learned so much and was eager to bring this newly gained painting skill back to share with my students.  Each spring my art students participate in a unit of art inspired by another region, country, or continent. This coming spring students will focus on art inspired by Italy and my trip! When students learn about the greater globe and life outside of their own living area, their world of knowledge is expanded! Art is a language that everyone, regardless of their country of residence, speaks!

Above: This was the view on three sides of the country estate where I went to school this summer in Italy. I walked this path many times a day going from the classroom to my room and also to the painting studio. What a view! And, I'm wearing my painting clothes! I wore them every day! Honestly, they are now some of my prize possessions! Oil painting is messy!

All of the paintings you see surrounding me in the above photo are some of the more than 27 paintings I did while in Italy. This photo was at our last critique where we presented our best paintings and told about them. Later that night we had a gallery show where some of the neighbors and friends of the owners of Capitignano came to view our work. 

In the above photo I am in the process of painting the villa (house) you see behind me. The left side of this villa was most likely a 2-3rd century B.C.Roman look out tower which many hundred years later was made into a house. The bottom door, second from the right, was where I stayed for the whole summer while I was going to school in Italy. I enjoyed painting the house because it is a part of my great memories from the trip! Art making is such a good way to preserve your memories.