Bellissima Art Retreats 2017

Happy New Year everyone! Well, I guess that phrase is a couple weeks old now. Seeing as we are two weeks into 2017. 

I've been getting back into the swing of things, after taking a nice long break from commissions and thinking about work. Which typically means now that blogging is the on the burner farthest back, in a whole other damn house. I'll try to be better this year! I can't make any promises, but I'll try. 

I know quite a few of you already know about the newest business venture but I wanted to do a little post about what's coming this year! 

Last summer, my business partner and I set out to host our first art retreat in Florence, Italy! It was amazing and so exciting that something we had chatted about over coffee less than a year prior actually came to fruition! 

And so Bellissima Art Retreats was born! We're officially a business (paperwork filed and all, woot!) and we've got big plans for this year. We are plotting some Southern California weekend art retreats but our biggest goal this year is share Italy and creating art in Tuscany with more people. 

So this summer, we're going even bigger! We will be holding 2 one week long retreats back in my favorite Tuscan town...Castiglion Fiorentino! We will be staying in an updated farmhouse tucked back in the Val di Chio just outside of town. The farmhouse is owned by the Buccelletti family, who I've been friends with since I first traveled to CFno years ago. 

Fun story: my friend Michele Bucculletti met his wife, Renee, when she was studying at the study abroad center. I was working there at the time and got to watch the magic of that town bring another couple together and then I got to make their wedding album a few years later!

Renee has been helping us coordinate and get all the amazing activities for the summer lined up! We will be having cooking classes, walking tours of the towns, day trips to Assisi and Cortona (the same Cortona from Under the Tuscan Sun), transportation to and from everything and so much more. Our villa is surrounded by stunning views of olive groves and vineyards that we get to paint every day. Did I mention it also has a pool? Yeah...to say we're excited about this coming June is an understatement. 

We've already had some amazing folks reserve their spots for next summer, and I'd love it if some of you guys could come along! Bring your mom along for a mother daughter trip! Or just your sisters, sorority or genetic! Grab a couple of your favorite besties for a summer of reminiscing about that time you studied abroad together. Surprise your girlfriend with an excuse for her to invest in that "one day I'll paint in Italy" dream. Or simply just do it as a gift to yourself because...why the hell not? 

Quinto the traveling sketchbook update

I fully intended to be a more active blogger this summer. But seeing as it's July 23rd and this is my 2nd post since I arrived a month ago, that didn't go as planned.

Another thing that hasn't gone exactly as expected is Quinto. I still have soooo many pages left to fill and so little time to do so. I may have added too many pages without taking into account that I would essentially lose a week of sketching during the Bellissima Art Retreat. We shall see what I have to show for this summer come August 2nd. 

Here's a little peek at what I've been working on. Some pieces of Assisi, Perugia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Lucca and Florence. There's more photos on Instagram under the hashtag #QuintotheTravelingSketchbook

bits & pieces + an Italy giveaway! (closed)!

I really can't believe I have already been here a full month! Time is flying by and so are the pages in my sketchbook. Oofah...I'm scared to see how fast this next month and a half will go by too. Especially since I have some friends coming to visit. New adventures up the coast are coming! 

I also just remember that the 1 year birthday of Sketchy Notions is this week on the 19th. Pretty crazy that it has already been a year since I filed for a business license, started the trademarking adventures and turned my little hobby into a real, functioning business. A lot has happened in one year. In celebration of this, I'm going to giveaway one of my little watercolored postcard! You can find out more details at the end of this post after a peek at life in Italy during the past few weeks...

1. Girasole! Sunflowers! Feels like home when I see a giant field of sunflowers...

2. Sketching back in my favorite Tuscan town, Castiglion Fiorentino! 

3. I have an obsession with bikes, flower boxes and vintage Vespas...if you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen multiple examples of this obsession...

4. It has been raining off and on (mostly on to the point of thunder storms) for the past couple weeks. Which is actually lovely! Much cooler temperatures and less tourists...YAY!!!

5. A prime example of my Vespa obsession...

6. Found some Queen Anne's Lace growing alongside the walls the other day! 
7. The most perfect and lonely window. 
8. Yellow versus pink. A block divided...
9. Watching for rainbows outside of my window...
10. The prize! I just painted this little postcard and I'd love for it to find a lovely new home. I'll probably mail it from the states so I can include some other little Italy goodies and not risk it never reaching its new home!  Read below for details on how to enter...

You can enter by doing ANY or ALL of the following, just leave a comment after telling me you did it with an email to reach you at! Each form of entry must have a separate comment in order to be counted for multiple entries!

1. Comment telling me somewhere you want to travel one day! 
2. Follow my blog
3. Follow along on Instagram
4. Like on Facebook
5. Follow on Twitter
6. Heart my Etsy Shop

Already follow along on bloglovin', twitter etc? Awesome, just leave a comment telling me you do! You can do any or all of these to enter. Giveaway will be open until Saturday July 26th!  

The giveaway is CLOSED! The Random Number Generator picked: #2! Congratulations Susie!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! I'm thinking about holding another giveaway when I launch my new collection so stay tuned! 

Quarto the traveling sketchbook: update II

Happy 4th of July! This past week has been pretty crazy. I headed back to Castiglion Fiorentino for just a couple days. I woke up just after 4 am Tuesday to take the 6:09 train in order to have a full day there. My friend Heather, who was in the same summer study abroad session as me, was waiting at the station on her way to Florence. Such perfect timing! 

I made the trek up the hill and headed straight to Santa Chiara to say hello. None of the ladies in the kitchen knew I was coming and it was so much fun to surprise all of them. I was able to eat lunch with all of them and spent the day cruising around town finding old friends. 

The UT Austin and Houston students also had their final exhibit that night at the center. It was a fantastic show! It's fun to see sketchbooks from current students and think back to the first sketches I made in that town 5 years ago. 

After dinner there was a band in the courtyard. It's the last week in Italy for all these students and it was great to see them having so much fun in this special space. Afterwards we went out to watch the USA vs Belgium soccer game. It was a very full day...

Wednesday my friend Veronica took me up into the Val di Chio to visit her friend and see her horses! I even got to ride one bareback for a bit. I caught up with a lot of friends that night too. 

Thursday my printmaking friend Rick and I went to Florence and sketched the Bargello and visited all our favorite art shops; Zecchis, Casa della Stilografica and the Fabriano shop. Afterwards, I caught the train back to Lucca and went home to fry up some stuffed zucchini blossoms! Oofah!  It was a pretty surreal couple of days but absolutely perfect. I was able to get a lot of sketches done too, and I've started collaging in Quarto. Here's a peek at the progress so far...

1. The infamous stairs that I spent many hours hauling crates of vegetables and water up during my internship. They're quite pretty when you're not struggling to carry stuff up them. Also I started easing my way back into collaging...
2. This is the sketch I started on after I made that Instagram photo I mentioned last post...
3. From my trip to Florence last week. I was able to visit Santa Croce and sketch it again! 
4. I've been playing around with different sketching techniques...color blocking and just quick lines then color. Pretty fun.
5. I've been trying to read La Testa degli Italiani...in Italian...these are my notes of words to look up, along with a watercolor from here in Lucca. 

6. Quick watercolor of the Anfiteatro in Lucca and some lists...
7. I woke up early one day and biked over to Piazza San Michele here in Lucca. The perfect spot for a cappuccino and a sketch before the tourists wake up!
8. Working on some new food related postcards. And the Loggia in Castiglion Fiorentino! 
9. The view from the courtyard at Santa Chiara in Castiglion Fiorentino. And the sweetest little chicken I met in the Val di Chio! 
10. Sketches from my horse adventure in Petreto in the Val di Chio. My favorite sculpture from the Bargello in Florence. 

The rest of the progress: Quarto update I

Terzo progress...

Sorry for the mini blogging hiatus. I took a trip back to Castiglion Fiorentino for Halloween and to visit with friends. What was supposed to be a 2 day trip turned into about 4.5 days of visiting, catching up, Antique Fair and shenanigans. Fantastic shenanigans but not as much sketching as I would have liked. But I still have some new sketches from right before the Venice/Bologna trip and this past week to share...

A FREEZING cold night sketch in the Anfiteatro and the view from the Guinigi Tower.  

Food wise. It's still pretty gloomy outside here in Lucca so today I did a bit of shopping and bought about €10 of cheeses and pancetta...which means carbonara is happening tonight! It's such a good cozy comfort food. Movie + vino + spaghetti carbonara = my lazy Monday night! Perfetto! 

I'm going to make a day trip to Florence tomorrow to properly visit/sketch that lovely city. No bags to haul, no trains to catch, no rush. Just me and Terzo on a date in Firenze. 

Gelato count...I've been slacking. 

Bit of collaging and more night sketching/quotes

The walls of Lucca on a lovely rainy day. 

More wall sketching, I could spend all day up there...

One of my new favorite Italian words, studio leaves and a 5 minute sunset watercolor

Rainy day sketch crawl through Castiglion Fiorentino down one of my favorite alleys... 

Meloncino sketches at La Piazzetta

Arezzo Antique Fair sketching

Late night sketch at Velvet Underground, then another favorite quote...

"start listening to the silent spaces in your thoughts 

and enjoy the wells of peace that exist within them"

one time I got stuck in Russia...

Moscow never looked so good!

Ciao from Lucca! I just got to my friend's apartment a little while ago but it has been a long week of travelling...one hell of a long week. Not all bad of course, but the first 48 hours were pretty ugly. 

It all started at LAX, where I arrived at the International terminal with plenty of time to check in only to find that my flight to Moscow was delayed 3 hours. Which would have been just fine with me, if I didn't have a connecting flight out of Russia 2.5 hours after the first flight was originally supposed to arrive. Che palle. Fast forward 3+ hours later and we are finally leaving Los Angeles, with the optimistic thoughts from the flight attendants saying we will still make it in time. As well as the promises that if we don't that there is an Alitalia flight leaving shortly after that one. 

Fast forward another 12 hours past a very long but comfy flight to arriving in Moscow! Where we land about 1 minute after the connecting flight to Rome leaves. Che pallone! As it turns out, they were not able to put us on the last flight out of Moscow, which left about 6 of us stuck in Russia unexpectedly and quite Visa-less for the night. 

While most of Europe has the Schengen Agreement where you can be in any of the 26 participating countries for 90 days without a Visa, Russia does not. So the group of us were essentially stuck in Russia for the night illegally. Boh. This led to a lot of group bonding, waiting for chaperons and monitored elevator rides, a bus ride out of the back of the airport straight to a hotel where we were isolated on a floor from the rest of a hotel. Fortunately, I was stuck with some pretty cool guys who were entertained by this whole adventure about as much as I was! 

The next day we all returned to the airport where we were able to catch our 10 am flight to Rome at last! 4 hours later, I was back home in Italia! After catching a ride into Rome with my new found Russia/California friends, I was on my way to Castiglion Fiorentino...only to find a sciopero (train strike) at Roma Termini station! [insert lots of Italian swearing] So, some more waiting to catch a train to Arezzo, then a quick backtrack to Castiglion Fiorentino where I was finally reunited with my friends and Italian family, 2 days later than I had originally hoped. Vabbè, it was all worth it.

Oh home, yes I am home!

Bellina, my love on 4 legs. 

I've been running around catching up with people these past 2 days so sketching has been limited but my hands are slowly waking up with each espresso. Here's a peek at the progress in Terzo so far. I'll be going lots of exploring in Lucca this week so more sketches to come soon. 

It's so lovely to meet you!

Some Russian...

New Revisit Project prints! And a sale!

Busy day! I finally finished up the next two pieces in my Revisit Project! Santa Chiara and Castiglion Fiorentino are completed! And are now in my Etsy shop! 


To celebrate their completion, I'm also having a sale on ALL my prints in the shop! Including all the Revisit Project prints and all my little owls! 
AND if you buy two, you get FREE SHIPPING! Huzzah! 


I also just dropped off another batch of pearl snap earrings at Los Olivos General Store this morning! Busy week, and I've only been able to get into the art bubble twice! 


The Chair Faire is coming too so I need to get cranking on those two beauties. And I'm making the invitations for my future cousin in law's bridal shower! Lots happening...plus my bookmaking workshop next week. Oi vey. 

Revisit Project: Santa Chiara

Been a while since I've updated/been able to work on this project! I'm still in the process of watercoloring the Trevi Fountain and Castiglion Fiorentino pieces. I had some time today to edit up the next one, Santa Chiara. 

I made the original sketch way back in 2009 when I was just a student studying at Santa Chiara. I've watercolored and sketched and inked up and printed that courtyard so many times but somehow it still doesn't get old. There was always a new vantage point. Depending upon the season, the shadows were different and the whole space changed. The vines turned bright red during the fall. Like clockwork, the swallows would swoop in and make their laps at sunset. Then the turtles would join in the scene during the summer months. I spent so much time over the 3 years in this courtyard, and I could return tomorrow and find some little detail that I had never seen before.