Craig Penny 2019 Painting Workshop Highlights - Paesano Tours
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Craig Penny 2019 Painting Workshop Highlights

Craig Penny was our guest artist to demonstrate in Venice and Bay of Poets (Cinque Terre) in September 2019.

The painting workshop to Venice and the Bay of Poets (Cinque Terre) was so different.  Venice is such a vibrant, busy city and it takes careful management to navigate to quiet places to paint. 

Craig is renowned for his vibrant, fresh paintings and Venice was his element.  I brought him to quiet canals with views of bridges and old city buildings which begged to be painted.

The canal’s waters are dark and the narrow pathways are full of mystery.  Venice after many centuries of supremacy now fears the reality of sinking.  It is sad but true.  The waters have risen. 

The proof was on the islands.  A local man informed that the council had risen the pathway by adding pavement on top of the old ones.  The pavements have been raised more than ½ meter. 

All the houses which had four steps now only have one to enter inside. Then inside the door, another pavement is placed creating a step or two to enter the ground floor group photo in front of the flags of the town. 

When November comes, sirens will call out warning of extreme high tide, which last year exceeded 1.9m, which surpassed their protection of 1.2m.  But the people of Venice are stoic as they continue to solve this problem to protect their beloved city.

While in Venice, the operetta was opening on Saturday so some of us took the opportunity of seeing and hearing the music with the masked singers.

Since everyone arrived a day earlier, Craig and I decided to start the workshop a day earlier so that we had a free day on the last day Sunday to either explore Venice or take a bus to Cortina in the Alps.  The weather is usually cooler up in the Alps surrounding Cortina.  In the morning, 150 small fiats came racing and tooting through the centre of Cortina.  It was quite a sight.

The day we left Venice; we experienced the full force of the rain.  Luckily, the weather was very good for us previously.

The trip from Venice to the other side of Italy was another adventure as we left the stormy clouds behind and were greeted by a dramatic skyline and sunshine.

In San Terenzo, we enjoyed the walks and the food provided at our hotel, which was located in front of the beach.

Craig was in his element as he instructed. Once again, the weather was perfect except a wind came to prevent the ferries from going to the Cinque Terre.

But no worry, I just changed to another place and when the weather permitted later in the tour, we went to see the clinging towns by sea.

On Thursday, we went to Sarzana (a town in Italy) and discovered the largest market in the district. We gave everyone some free time to shop and before meeting up for a painting session either looking at the castle or down in the town.  Time goes too quickly but everyone was satisfied.  The paintings produced for review in the evenings showed a picture means a thousand words. 

To everyone who came, the experience in seeing you enjoy yourselves fills me with satisfaction and pleasure.  I want to thank you for your kindness and friendship and hope to see you again.

If you or someone you know are interested in coming on a painting workshop in Italy, where we take care of everything (so you can just paint) – please visit the available tours here.