Archive: May 2016 - Rosanna Hardin Hall

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

  • May 25, 2016
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Marae Arahurahu once was a Polynesian site for religious ceremonies to celebrate their dead ancestors. Now two huge Tahitian god figures stand silently. They seem to hold court in their natural palace grounds. I am alone as I honor them with paintings. I have to paint them. One thought I have is that 116 years ago it was Marae Arahurahu which inspired Gauguin to paint, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? He questioned life’s meaning. And, so do I. I begin to feel Gauguin's presence, as painting drives me to seek to answer in my own life, Gauguin’s quest, What Am I? I am a traveling...

Read more

On Returning To Italy

  • May 25, 2016
On Returning To Italy

I feel I am returning home again - maybe I should say, I am returning to my three Italian hometowns of Rome, Venice, and Florence. Every street corner, every canal, every cobbled street is familiar territory. This is my soul state of being alive, away from this world of commercialism, politics, war, and bad art. In Florence, I visit Medici gardens which laid the groundwork for classical formal Italian gardens during the early Renaissance. I am fortunate to visit four gardens: Castello, Petraia, Careggi, and Boboli. I love Castello and Careggi the most. Castello is still well-kept with bed after...

Read more

Roam through Italian Garden Paintings

  • May 25, 2016
Roam through Italian Garden Paintings

Italian gardens call me back this fall. Already I am packing my watercolors, brushes, paper, and easel for the return pilgrimage to my favorite gardens in Rome and Venice. In “Travel Tales from the Easel,” my memoir, I reflect on the adventure of painting in Italy. In Venice, I recall, after loading up with my backpack, carrying case, camp stool, and easel wrapped with a bungee cord to use as a carrying handle, I arrive by motor boat at I Giardini, the public park enlivened with statues which animate nature. I draw several charcoal and white chalk sketches of a large stone statue...

Read more

Painting in Mughal Gardens of India

  • May 25, 2016
Painting in Mughal Gardens of India

Even when I don’t complete a painting to my satisfaction, I feel I have owned the garden for my own earthly delights. The garden and I become one entity. I am happy. I experience such joy in Gardens of Paradise. A glimpse into Gardens of Paradise – where I feel so at peace – is a quest I fulfilled during a two-week visit to the Mughal gardens of India. In the spring of 2012, I happily roamed these 16th- century gardens as part of a tour led by Patrick Bowes, a landscape architect and historian from Ireland. “The true Mughal gardens have four canals of water running from the center...

Read more

Capturing the Essence of the World with Watercolors

  • May 24, 2016
Capturing the Essence of the World with Watercolors

Design is the essence of how I see the world. All nature sparkles with jewels of color and, as a plein air painter, I capture sparkling lights with pigment. I am a natural oil painter. I like the opaque quality of oil paints so I can change a composition with many layers of paint. Sometimes, though, I experiment with watercolor paint. In oils and watercolor, the same pigments are used. The difference is that water makes the pigments thinner and transparent. So, I am less comfortable with watercolor. I make mistakes. That is why my challenge is to master watercolors. On my travels, I am learning...

Read more

Visiting Villas in Pompeii

  • May 24, 2016
Visiting Villas in Pompeii

The Tragic Poet: I paint many villas at Pompeii. One morning I go to Casa di Poeta Tragico (House of the Tragic Poet). I have already sketched a view of its family shrine located in a small peristyle garden (garden surrounded by covered walkways). Huge columns catch beams of sunlight. This casa is popular and is crowded by a steady stream of tour groups. Especially famous is a floor mosaic of a dog at the front entrance, and beneath the dog in Latin reads: “Beware of the Dog.” I discover a back entrance which is opened into the small peristyle garden. Visitors flow through the garden. They...

Read more

Learning To Draw Like An Angel (Michelangelo)

  • May 24, 2016
Learning To Draw Like An Angel (Michelangelo)

After long wishing and planning to study art in the center of the Italian Renaissance, I am keeping my wish alive. I arrive at the Florence Stazione (train station) and walk for three blocks to the Florence Academy of Art. At last, I find the bell cord, the lock clicks, and the door opens into a small entryway where bicycles line up. Through an archway, I can see a garden as I enter the art studio to the left. Standing at his desk is Daniel Graves, an American painter and the director of the academy. He welcomes me with a hug. Strangely, I already feel at home in my new city. The Florence Academy...

Read more