Eternal City - early days yet!

I was in Rome for the second time a few years ago, and did this sketch of the Teatro Marcellus. There was something about it, and I knew it was a foil to my painting that I was working on at the time, Fractured City. So the intention to paint this was always there, the sketch a little kernel for the future.

For Incognito 2017, the fundraiser for the Jack & Jill Foundation, I conceived of three "cityscape" postcards. So  still the painting was on my mind.

I took a printmaking workshop at the beginning of April this year in order to learn the Chine collé technique and quickly did an intaglio from my sketch.

Finally, I unrolled some canvas, quite a large piece (takes up most of the wall in my attic studio) and blocked in Eternal City.

I started to apply metal leaf in the negative areas behind the architectural structures.

I had applied some texture before blocking in the painting, but then decided that I wanted some rougher texture on the older part of the Teatro building.

I will gesso over this scrim burlap and re-block before I get into the meat of painting.

The texture of the columns is mostly smooth rather than canvas.

Sketching!

I have been enjoying sketching again lately and using the opportunity of receiving flowers to have a subject which I have always loved, tulips. I thought I would post a few of these sketches. The sketch below is done using a 3B or 4B pencil.

I am also having fun with watercolour pencils. A friend recently mentioned "water pen" to me, something I have not yet come across -- must investigate!

Tulips are sometimes exhibitionists!

Another soft pencil sketch.

As I am reusing some old sketchbooks with blank pages, I am also coming across older sketches. This is an avocado pencil sketch from 2001.

This sketch is from the last Umha Aois; Experimental Bronze Casting symposium I attended (Ventry, Co. Kerry, Aug-Sept 2001). It is a drawing of my husband's pit furnace and handmade bellows.

Of course sketches may contain kernels for new paintings. My recent trip to Rome obviously inspired this as a counterpoint to my recent painting "Fractured City".

Rome 3 - Basilica San Clemente

Before my first visit to Rome in 1999, I had read about Basilica San Clemente and put it on my "must see" list. It was not a disappointment and a return visit definitely a requirement of my recent trip. In the late 1600s the basilica was granted to the Irish Dominican order because of religious persecution in Ireland, and this still seems to be a Roman pilgrimage site for the Irish to this day. Further information on the basilica and its history can be found here. The upper level, "modern" church is beautiful and has an outside garden area. There are several frescoes or beginnings of frescoes -- elegant line drawings on a wall towards the back of the church. Photography is not allowed in the church and my postcard of one of these drawings will not show up in a scan. I was unable to find images of these under drawings online  (there are 2) so please do take my word for it!

Below the newer basilica is the older 4th century basilica! It is very thrilling to walk back through time by walking downstairs. Much of this hallway was familiar to me from my previous visit, but I was amazed at how much had been newly excavated in 16 years.

I love the walls where finds were placed willy-nilly after excavations in the 1800s. I am sure this earlier way of dealing with finds horrifies contemporary archaeologists, but I think it makes for a fascinating display.

In 2005 apparently, a number of frescoes were restored in the old basilica so they were totally new to me. There is now better lighting (still atmospherically dim), footpaths and didactics to explain what is on view. This is a depiction of the Descent of Christ into Limbo/The Harrowing of Hell and is believed to be a portrait (left) of St Cyril. The tomb with which this fresco is associated is believed to be St Cyril's tomb.

The didactic to this fresco told a very complicated and funny story of a Christian visiting a home and the master of the house (who was later converted and became a saint) was infuriated at this religious transgression and called the Roman guards to remove him from his home. Everyone got confused and the soldiers struggled to arrest a column. The master of the house told them to "put their backs into it" while the Christian made his escape. There was another fresco with an equally amusing story of a hermit who returned home to work as a servant for his family who did not recognise him till he died. Meanwhile, he made his home with them for many years, living under the stairs.

On the level below the old basilica lies the Mithraeum. One is not allowed in this room so viewing is from a window structure. It would be nice to get a closer look at the altar and the sculpture behind it. The Mithraic temple's footprint is smaller than the basilica, but there is also wall evidence of other buildings and in one of the "rooms" one can hear the water running from a still-working Roman aqueduct.

Visit to Rome - 1

I had the great fortune to be in Rome last week. It has been 16 years since my first visit, and the Eternal City has both changed and remained much the same. When there in 1999, there were a lot of preparations for the Millenium and thus many sites were getting a makeover; often I would visit something one day only to return the next day and find it covered in scaffolding. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore was closed on my previous visit, but this time, since it was near my hotel, it was one of the first sites I visited. The church's opulence is mind-blowing!

As well as basking in the warmth of Rome (16 C) it was a delight to be there during Carnevale as there were many street performances and an atmosphere of celebration. There was a grand piano set up across the road from the forum and four singers took the stage (individually, as duets, as a group) to sing popular opera songs.

I love the Pantheon. Originally it was a temple to all the gods, now it is a church; most definitely a sacred place.

The Pantheon's dome is it's most amazing feature, with the open circle spreading the natural light. When I was at university and taking a Roman art & architecture course, my professor had shown some personal photos of the city, including the interior of the Pantheon after it had been raining - puddles under the dome. I have been enthralled since.

After a pleasant stroll from The Pantheon, I found myself visiting the very baroque church of St Agnes in Agone (left of the fountain) in Piazza Navona. The picture below is one of Bernini's fountains.

Below the Spanish Steps, at Piazza Spagna, my guide book identifies this as another Bernini fountain or perhaps a fountain designed by "his less famous father". Though I like this fountain, most especially as there is seating around it, my guess is that it is senior Bernini's design, more staid and with less dynamic movement! Unfortunately the day after I was in this piazza, there was a match of some sort and small riots attributed to 6000 drunken Dutch fans did millions of euro worth of damage to the fountain and the piazza in general.

Roman Ruins

This is the last week of my Future Learn astronomy course "Exploring the Night Sky" and I had to whiz ahead to get it all finished because it was the first week of another Future Learn course "Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbour of Ancient Rome". This will be my fourth FL course, and I have signed up to another three! Perhaps I am crazy, but they are so interesting, and you can participate as little or as much as you want, learning at your own pace. The course is online, and accessible 24/7 with material still available indefinitely after the course is over. The Portus course continues my interest in Ancient Rome which was well whetted by the Hadrian's Wall course last autumn. In advance of getting stuck into Portus I was looking at some previous, relatively recent, Roman ruin site visits I have made. In 2013 while vacationing in Antibes, I made a side trip to Nice to see some Roman ruins. Unfortunately the ruins were only accessible to visitors by viewing from the park outside the archaeological museum, near the Matisse museum. Although I would have loved to actually walk among the runs, they were impressive nonetheless!

In the spring of 2012 I was in Barcelona. Prior to the trip I discovered that in ancient times Barcino was part of the Roman Empire (this is probably common knowledge, but it was news to me at the time!) and I made it my business to see what remains I could. I started my first day by taking a taxi from my hotel to the necropolis. There was a bit of confusion when the driver suggested I wanted to go to the museum and I insisted I didn't. It turned out that part of the necropolis is in the museum and can be viewed from outside and above...

The old city of Barcino is obvious: as well as the bronze letters spelling out its heart, the ancient walls which outlined the old city are evident.

Even where new buildings pop up, as with the inside of this civic office, the Roman heritage is preserved. These columns date from the 1st c AD.

Directed Reading & Research!

In conversation with one of my sisters on the weekend, I found out about a free online course offered by Newcastle University via Future Learn. The course, Hadrian's Wall, tugged at my lifelong but unrequited interest in archaeology and I quickly followed the link my sister sent me and signed up! It is a six week course (starting last week, but it was easy enough for me to catch up) completely online, using written, visual and video aids to discuss all aspects of Hadrian's Wall -- it's architecture, social aspects, history, warfare, politics, etc.

Essentially the course is directed reading where the course participants can choose their own level of commitment -- you have the opportunity to interact with other students via a chat feed, take quizzes, do further reading (in each section there is further recommended reading). A visit to Hadrian's Wall has always been on my wish list and now I feel like I am getting closer to it.

While I was on the Future Learn website, I also signed up for two additional courses! "Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Maritime Archaeology" is a four week course, starting next week, which is offered by the University of Southampton.

My visit to the archaeology museum in Antibes last year piqued my interest in maritime archaeology. Antibes was historically an Ancient Greek harbour and nearly everything at the beautiful little museum was found in the sea nearby from sunken ships. I loved this corner of the museum with all the barnacled storage vessels.

The third course I signed up for does not begin till Jan 2015 and is also a six week course: "The Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbour of Ancient Rome". Again, it is offered through the University of Southampton. I know there is some madness to my methods (it's not like I am lacking in things to do!) but these courses are giving me some directed reading and who knows how it will eventually manifest itself in my other work. It's all very exciting to me!