The Wine Harvest
Buona giornata (good day)! Now it's truly the next day in my body clock
and any other form of time keeping. I slept soundly and ready for the next
day. It's very early and who needs
technology anyway. A distant rooster
takes the place of an alarm clock. The
air is lovely and cool and still. Waking up in a room with stone walls and a
20-foot ceiling of centuries old timbered beams. A little later, now about 6:30
am, the sound of birds is beginning to fill the rooms and I'm set for a day of
exploring. Because there are many churches, the church bells ring across the
hills frequently - a lovely distant sound.
But taking away all my own art supplies will
add to the challenge of exploring where to go with my art - perhaps the best
way. The facility provides everything,
but there's nothing like having your own.
What will today bring? Perhaps my
luggage, perhaps some surprises? Again,
serendipity?
An early email tells me my luggage has been
located and will be delivered in a day or two, but not soon enough to have my
gear. So I set off for a morning walk taking photos and sketching. Fortunately, as a last minute addition, I
threw into my carry-on bag a small sketch book and one pencil in case I was
stuck in an airport. The air has a light
pungent aroma that is probably a combination of olive trees and grapes. Then I settled into the studio to read the
books about other artists who have been here in the recent past. Some high
quality and innovative work, but I'm going back to my sketching for the
moment. Plenty of time to paint when I
join the workshop on Sunday. My first goal here was to photograph vineyards and
olive groves so I set off to do just that yesterday and today, dozens of them.
The very next day they had all quietly disappeared
– all of them gone! They had been
harvested quietly. In amongst all the
rows of grapevines I could occasionally glimpse a worker. But I have dozens of
photos and this morning the sun was bright, the day cool and everything here in
Greve looks beautiful and they’ve begun to get rain in the night after a severe
drought. The surrounding hills stretch forever and the breezes sweep down
across the valley and beyond.
The luggage is finally here and intact, but I no
longer feel compelled to use paint so I'll keep sketching. And most importantly the chargers are here
and adapters work so I'm back in business writing this blog.
