 God's beauty is all around us and my goal as an artist is to capture and interpret that beauty on canvas and to take you the viewer along with me on this painting journey. Hello and welcome to Painting Journeys. This is a journey on canvas in oils. I'm going to take you to a new place today, the Italian Riviera. I think you're going to like it there. It was a beautiful, beautiful trip and I hope to capture just a little bit of the wildness that I saw. When you think of Riviera, you think of lots of sandy beaches and stretches and stretches of people laying out in the sun, sunbathing and everything, but it's not quite like that. So please stay with me. My name is Kitty Lynn Klisch and let's take this journey together. The last two shows that I had, I was doing a painting from the farming district of San Gimignano, Italy in Tuscany, the Tuscany Valley. I started with a painting that was of an old farm, a 17th century farm and I wanted to show you a photograph of that again just to remind you of what it looked like and then you'll see the completed painting and you'll see the difference between a photograph and an artistic rendering of that photograph because if you paint with passion, you put what you feel into it and I think when you see this you'll understand what I mean. So this is how it looked when we first started. It wasn't much to look at really, rather plain and as you can see it has evolved into this beautiful, beautiful painting. Well maybe that sounds a little maybe that sounds a little egotistical and I don't mean it that way. It's just that I'm excited about that and I'm excited that you were with me on that trip, on that journey. As we journeyed through this canvas and we found what we needed to improve and we added some color and really made it come alive and that's my passion is to take a photograph and bring it to life and to journey across the canvas with color. So now today we're going to be doing an area of the Cinque Verde, the Italian Riviera that's on the upper northern west side of the boot of Italy and it's very, very wild there, very wild and there's Cinque Verde means five lands or five towns and so we didn't get to visit all of the towns on our trip but we did take this very harrowing trip. I have a blank canvas today because I thought well maybe you'd like to see me as I start the canvas, as I am ready to you know to start laying in. This is as you can see it's very wild and tumultuous. I was up on a high cliff walking on this trail trying to get to the town that we were going to to have lunch and all the streets in the town were on you know hills. I mean it was literally you had to walk up steps everywhere you went. Cinque Verde is known for its pesto sauce and focaccia bread. I'm going to take my my palette it's just a regular palette not too many colors today doesn't look too, too terribly interesting but let's let's see what we can do. We have a dark shape up here take my knife and see here. I'm gonna block this in rather dark and so I'm just gonna use a little color and complement to make a nice a nice dark color to block in those shapes. They're mainly very gray as you can see. It's a nice mid-value with some darks and some lights and I'm just a tad. That looks pretty good. I'm gonna thin my thin the paint a little bit with a little bit of my thinner. I don't paint with a medium I just paint with a thinner. Okay so now across up in here we have a dark spot that's coming like so and it's coming and then there's another one that's coming right in here okay and then this comes back like this. Okay now I'm coming down here and I'm capturing the look of this coastline. Now remember we are standing on top looking down almost straight down at this and so it's a little different a little different view point than what we what I normally paint but I thought it was an interesting composition and I liked it for that reason so now we have these are coming down here this is I'm right here in this area right here okay and that's coming down there and then this is coming down and then it comes up see this here almost like teeth coming up and then this comes around like this and down and then goes across and here okay so now that's that's all of my mountains the outline of the mountains. Anyways I was telling you you can't get to this place by car or bus you have to go in by train and it's in a tunnel the tunnel when we went we took the bus to the place where we picked up the tunnel or the train rather and there since this is the only motor transportation to get to these five little towns or villages that are on this mountain mountainous area there with the craigs blocks and and the houses the villages are built right up to the water right overlooking these these right up to the bluffs overlooking the the water I mean it's really something to see anyway so we got there and our guide was trying to help us all get on the train and there were there wasn't enough room and the conductor kept saying squeeze in more squeeze in more well needless to say we were standing and I have to show you what this train looks like I'll have a photo of it here this is what this is what the train looks like and it's it goes through this long tunnel and we were all packed on there like sardines you wouldn't you wouldn't believe how crowded we were it was so bad I'm claustrophobic and it was so bad that I could hardly breathe you stand there and there's a person pressed against you here and somebody pressed against them and our guide couldn't get on the train and she wouldn't leave let the train leave without us and we're all on the train and there's our guide down below running back and forth on along the tracks trying to find a place to get on the train and anyway so she finally made it and we finally got there well it it was horrible yet mean if you've ever seen that movie Schindler's List and you kind of understand what I'm talking about as far as the being packed like sardines on a train all of us were very uncomfortable and I know the native people people that live there that travel back and forth all the time they're used to this and so they were sitting there with their bags of fruits and their breads and things like that and sitting in the seats and and kind of smiling at us and you could tell that they thought we were quite funny and stupid tourists you know how that goes but anyway so we made it over there when we got off the train then we had to walk along this long pathway along the side of the cliffs and it just it was just like like hewn right out of the side of the cliff and sometimes you'd be up really high like I was here when I was looking down and then other times it would go down lower and underneath this walkway that went along the cliffs underneath there were gun portholes that they had put in during World War two and so you could actually see these portholes and see these horrible conditions that those soldiers must have lived in and I want to show you a picture of what that looked like it's very similar to I'll just put this up here it's very similar to to what I'm painting here but it shows you it shows you the walkway if you can see the walkway going across there and right underneath are the the the places where they had opened up right out of the rock so that they could defend the coastline from the invaders during World War two it's a fascinating beautiful place and anyway along this walkway between the towns we came to a part of the walkway that was known as the lovers it was a section of the walkway that was for lovers and lovers would go there and they would sit underneath this sculpture that overlooks the ocean and they would pledge their love to each other and they would kiss and a kiss underneath this sculpture made meant that your your relationship was going to last a lot of proposals there was the walkway of love I'm sorry I can't tell you the name of that in Italian my Italian is non-existent so anyway when we got there and we were walking around and and we went up to this little restaurant that was one of the first things we did I had the most marvelous lunch of this pasta with the pesto sauce on it I don't know if you like pesto sauce like I like it but it's it's just marvelous and this was cooked to perfection was was you know it's like it's like it's all tossed together it's like it's almost uncooked and fresh oh my gosh it's my mouth water just thinking about it I'm just getting a little bit of the of the feel of the of the cliffs this is such a rough wild terrain here and I can't imagine its history goes back it's back to the 1100s on paper but it's supposed to be as old as 600 AD this area so it is really something and it's always been like this you know so then on the way back we got to go on a cruise down the Mediterranean all the way because see the train had taken us to the furthest town the five towns are all in a row and the train had taken us to the furthest in the most northern town and then we got on a cruise boat and we cruised down and we looked at all got to see all of the of the different towns and to see the color of these of these buildings the beautiful corals and and pinks and yellows and and blues I mean it was just it was just like being in an enchanted land it was just so gorgeous and I didn't I thought when I first got off the train and I saw what it looked like I thought my gosh how does anybody how would anybody be able I mean why would they call this the Italian Riviera how are you gonna how are you going to be able to sunbathe or you know do the things that tourists like to do and so I have to show you another picture now so as we're traveling in the boat down the Mediterranean just off the coastline okay that's what the towns look like you see what I mean about the color and the beauty of it I mean it's gorgeous and then just so that you know there are there are beaches and there are tons of people out there enjoying the sand and the sun it was it was wonderful it really and truly was but those colors in those houses you know I was kind of this kind of torn whether to paint a village for you today or to paint the ocean but the ocean is my true love I love I love water and the feel of it and I can hardly wait to get this blocked in so that I can go over and paint in the water it just it's wild and strong and and it does something to my soul it makes me makes me feel alive I love it I love it really enjoying being here with you today it's it's really nice to be able to share my adventures with you and I'm glad you've joined me I really am this was my trip to Italy was the a life the completion of a lifelong dream and I just I feel so blessed to have gone to have seen what I saw experienced what I experienced and even there were some difficult parts of it I don't do real well with climbing hills and and so there were some difficult parts it was I I wouldn't I wouldn't go to this area of Italy if you have any medical problems I found that out because it's it's quite rigorous to get around but it's exciting though I'm glad I didn't miss it they don't tell you though you know if you have this that or the other thing don't go on this trip they don't give you any warning you're just you just go when you're in for it you know so but that's okay that's the way those things go tough it out that's what you have to do just tough it out all right now I I believe I'm have some pretty good foundation here from my cliffs and rocks boulders and if you notice everything is coming down in a downward movement so I'm painting with you know I'm trying to describe the movement of the object with my brush by putting my paint on in the downward stroke you know so that this doesn't take really a whole lot of painting to read correctly I'll come back in and put some highlights on it and everything but I want to get to that water first of all though I've got these little outcroppings here that I have to do okay so here is here we are right here and this is out here showing okay and then there's something that's coming right here and around and it goes across here like so and that comes up and that goes in there's a little bit of water in there that's going like that and up okay now so we'll get some paint on this guy and now I think we're getting it pretty good here okay now do you have a feeling that you are high and looking down I hope so because that's that's what that's how you're supposed to feel like you're up above looking down and I think you'll get that feeling a little better when I get some of that water on there all right now I'm going to trade brushes let me get a little larger brush here mix up some blue if you notice on my photograph the blue is very like a cobalt blue up here very blue almost as a little violet to it and then as it comes down here it turns into more of a greenish blue and then as it gets down here it gets where the all the turbulence is it gets a very beautiful light blue green and some of the water some of the white and the water where it's coming up and foaming it has a little bit of violet underneath it I don't know if you can see this but it's really it's really very interesting when you look at this and you see all of the colors that are in there and that's what I want to capture is all of that color and motion movement excitement tremendous force tremendous energy that's what I want to capture for you so I'm going to start with the top and mix it I'm mixing up a blue a very dark blue and a blueish green when I mix the two together they make cobalt blue and I don't want I can't paint straight out of the tube because it would be garish so I have to gray the blue with a little bit of its complement of which is orange the complement of blue is orange so in order to gray my paint I have to add a little bit of the complement if I just went pure color you'd think oh goodness kitty that looks like something out of it out of a comic book okay now I'm adding a little bit of white to it and I see that was maybe a bit too much it's a little overzealous here in my hurry to get at this water so now I'll have to darken it down a little bit I'll show you here what I'm doing you see I'm mixing this this with a little bit of the orange and I'll put my knife now to check I'll put my knife up here a little bit of glare here in the studio so it's kind of hard for me to tell but I believe that I need to needs to be grayed just a little bit more I don't know if you noticed or not but I my canvas is under toned in red I do that with all my canvases it's just a red acrylic and water lots of water and I tone the canvases because it's a lot less intimidating to work on a canvas that's already been like messed up it's not pristine and white and not only that but the most important part about it is that by doing so I have this reddish glow this warm reddish glow that will come up through my paint and it'll warm up my paint on the canvas I know this is taking me a little while but I want I want it to be right for you and so I'm adding just a little tiny bit of violet okay now I'm liking that I think that looks pretty good and then we'll have to make up a lot of other colors to go on from there but I think this is a good base so we'll start with this from the top now when I paint water typically I like to go in a downward motion and in doing so I'm showing the depth of the water this all across here is very dark bear with me because I know this probably isn't the most interesting part you know sometimes you have to build the basement of which can be kind of boring before you can build your house and then after you build your house then you get to pick out pick out the paint colors for the roof and the shingles and and everything so this is kind of like that I'm building my basement right now I'm putting the the base base in for what I'm going to be doing later that's where the magic comes in I'm gonna take a little bit of white lighten that up a little bit and I'm gonna start coming down with a little bit of light and you see these little tiny short strokes here okay now just so you know where I'm going I'm going to take another brush a clean brush and I'm going to make a movement like water I hope you can see that I hope that's showing up for you that we have movement in this water and because I'm not I painted in a downward motion of which gave me my depth now when I go across and just barely make the wave motions now it looks like water on top of deep water looks like surface we'll go on with the next part and now we need to get a little bit put a little tiny bit of green in here oh that's really pretty I like that now we're going to come can you see can you see that gradual very gentle color change there that's what I want this is such a fun journey I loved paint water so glad that you could join me today I hope you've watched the other episodes of painting journeys so far I think we've been to two places in Alaska and several places in Italy so we're getting around there been wondering where we should go next so I'm talking to you I'm thinking where should we go next should we stay in Italy for a while there's so much more to show you about Italy really want to leave the country until I be showing you everything I want to show you this there so maybe we'll stay in Italy maybe maybe next the next show we'll do a let me see here oh I know where I want to take you I want to take you to a CC the Saint Francis of the CC is from they have a beautiful church there and that's where I'm going to take you next time we're going to go to a CC there again it's kind of mountainous the city sort of sits on a hillside but there are areas that are that are kind of flat like little plateaus I met the most wonderful monk while I was there and he was just so humble and and nice and talk to me this couldn't kind of a funny story but I don't want to tell you too much about that because we're not there yet so we want to stay where we're at and right now we're painting the Italian Riviera right on the Mediterranean at its wildest now these these mountains are in front even though I'm trying to go behind right now I'm trying to be very careful because those mountains are in front and you see how this is a little lighter over here that's because I have all that foam to put on there so which lighter underneath okay I do see right in here though that I do need some of that dark back in there that is quite dark I'm gonna come up here and put some very dark in there down here and then we have this dark it's in there and it's coming around here and around in here okay now I'm going to take that some white and put in here in here wipe my brush really good and now we'll make water again excuse me for not talking it takes a little bit of of concentration I'm thinking really hard now because I am praying that you're seeing the same thing I'm seeing one of the things that I did not enjoy about my trip to Italy was there were so many places you know where you had to pay to use the restroom and so you would pay to go in and use the restroom and there wouldn't be a toilet seat you know and I always thought that was really strange why would a person have to pay to use the restroom and there's no toilet seat on the toilet it was just I don't know if they'd all been ripped off or or what but I found that very odd and uncomfortable those were the little things that that um I guess that was really a little too much information but still is what I thought about because it's it's you know it's different it's like it's not what you expect you know all righty now we're coming down and we're getting greener so we're going to go into the green a little bit more and I'm mixing up that green put a little white in it okay here this and I hope you can see that subtle change in color and there's some places that are quite green and some places that are still a little blue this you know this this water is all moving together roaring in and out and so you have to I feel anyway that the best way to to paint this is to put the color that you see where you see it and then go back and make it look like the water you need to be even a little greener as we're coming down in here now that's lighter there that's quite a bit lighter in here now remember I'm going to make all of that the wave action in the turmoil I'll have to do that off camera I'm sorry but time just does not allow us to do everything on this painting so I'll take it and set it up in my studio at home and I'll finish it and then our next show I'll have it all ready to show you all framed and and all finished with all the foam and everything maybe there'll be time to show you a little foam today I don't know though we've got to get this canvas cover here okay let's see I'm still doing that I'm still building my basement basically well I guess I'm almost done with the basement and I started out in the house or you could equate that to baking a cake okay the cake is in the oven and I'm thinking about what am I gonna frost it with there we go now I'm just kind of going into my water and making it a little muddy but that's okay that's all right because the water does the rocks do go out into the water and the water does go over them so that's okay I do love this little this little spot right in here over came in there I love that little spot all right now I take the other brush and make this look like pretty much the same stroke over and over again um to get it to look the way you want you can't really um make the waves just yet but you suggest them I can suggest them by putting a little dark underneath it and a little dark under there and you see all the colors in that water it all shows it's it's working I think put a little light in here I like the paint with thick paint and pasta I love thick paint I like that feeling that of immediacy I don't like an overworked look to my paintings just going to get a little action in here there we go maybe a little bit of darker in here and now I think it's time to start getting into the really light rain and the water that real pretty stuff I see water with this color in it and I don't know it just does something to me just I just think that's so gorgeous this is more white over here oops I'm using the wrong brush let's get back to this big brush here it's more wider this is really got the action here it's really going up like this and so I don't want to do too much of my this business here because that's for more far away down in here it's got to be there's got to be much more turmoil and movement going in different directions I can't do too much though until I get the underpainting on you pretty pretty pretty color I hope you can see how that just goes from the deep blue far off right on down usually I don't do paintings where there's no sky in them I don't know it just doesn't quite seem you know like it's gonna gel to me but then when I saw this I loved it there's no sky just water and rock this is all going every which way here the pale green strong there's lots of white down here but that way the white has to come on after before almost have it covered on a hurry I want to I want to show you a little bit of the action of the waves down here about water pounding in the roar of it okay now let's see if I can I know we're getting pretty close to our time being up but let's see if I can just take and add a little bit of the the violet you know white caps of the waves and just get that movement a lot of times I'll stand back when I do the waves like that and I'll just flick the paint at the wave to make it the spray so that spray in the water now there's a lot of dark and light down in here and I realize that but it's not something that we can hurry I hope you understand that it's just we can't hurry that that's something that's going to take some time I have to just know that we have it covered and you can kind of see where it's going I hope you can anyway now so we have this green is right in here kind of softened into that this is like and over in here we have this big and just just for the sake I might scrape this off afterwards but just for the sake of showing you a little bit of what this is going to look like I'm just going to just very quickly show you give you and to give you an idea of what this is going to look like with all of the water and everything on it all of the wave action just going to do this very quickly and it's I know it's not this is not how it's going to be when it's finished but it'll give you an idea a little bit of where we're going you see how that's swishing up and then this down here is quite light so I'm just going to just like it's just and then we have some wave coming over here and I'm going to just take that and make that coming over there very thick paint now rushing rushing fill up the water it's dark in here this is so much like I said this is probably when I bring it back and show you the next show it probably won't look exactly like this but at least you have an idea of what those waves will look like up there and how that's going to be with that water curving around and doing all this wonderful movements in the in the um and then up in here we have more wet white waves white calves and that's all coming off of there there's even a little bit up here yeah why don't leave anything out there okay well I'm just about out of paint so that must be in the show it's almost over a little bit of white in here you see how that's just rolling around it's it's deep and scary see if I can get any more left here on here we have just a little bit of time left but look at that look at how that waters just splashing over splashing up I hope this is as exciting looking to you as it is to me I hope you've enjoyed being with me today as we've taken our little journey down the in Riviera the coastline of the Mediterranean now maybe I'll leave the water alone and I'll take this brush here and in these last few seconds here I'll try to give these mountains just a little more definition for you so that you can see how the outcropping has come a little bit more this is really dark down here a little bit of our water color onto the rocks rising this area here and here and right here okay there we go I have it all blocked in I'm happy with it I think it is a good start I am going to like I said I'll finish it and our next show I'll show it to you I'll completely finish there'll be a lot more detail in the water I'm really glad you could join me today this has been a really a nice nice journey and I'm so glad that you could make it with me I feel so blessed to be able to be here with you taking this journey across the canvas to all these other places that I have been and thank you so much for tuning in once again this is Kitty Lynn Klisch the name of the show was painting journeys and on the next show we're going to visit the town of Assisi where St. Francis of Assisi came from and I think you're going to really like that I'm going to do a building in that in that show I think you'll like that so I have to say bye bye for now it's really been great thank you for joining