MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Mercato di Napoli

I was so inspired to paint this beautiful market in Napoli.   I loved the way the light was almost like sunshine on all the items that were for sale. I tried to capture the essence and I am very happy with the results.

Exhibition in Via Guilia 194A, Roma 10 December - 7 January 2014

The following are a few of my new paintings for the above exhibition.  They are all the same size of 21 cm x 29.7 cm. (A4) 

Where have I been? Not writing on my blog thats for sure!

We recently went to Napoli for the weekend.  I have been to Napoli before and its truly a very unique place in the world.  A crazy place I call the wild west because its filled with thousands of people living a vastly different life from what I guess I know.  The last time I was there was when the garbage collection strike was on, and every night in the piazza of the railway station people lit fires in the big plastic bins and surrounding rubbish.  It was horrific for all the people trying to conduct business in shops and restuarants and even for mothers with children to go buy some food at the local supermarket.  They have incredible markets with the freshest food.  They sell everything much of which I suspect is highly counterfeit, even cigarettes which I have never seen sold in this way.  The people of Napoli are incredibly friendly and treat you like a long lost friend if they see you more than once.

I loved this place it was great and I could wait to paint it.  I am working on the painting now.

We went to have coffee and were told that there was no hot water in this massively big cafe, its seemed so strange but perhaps not....
So we decided to have a glorious little cake and an aperitivo instead.

This little place sold lots of horse stuff, must have been one of my husbands long lost relatives, with the same surname.  His father was actually born in Napoli.  My husband says sadly that his father would turn over in his grave if he could see what has happened here now.

Fantastically fresh seafood.  Big tubs of fresh vongole and cozze.

ROMA

I went to see a friend who is an artist and lives in the very center of Rome.  I live about 20 minutes away so I had to catch a bus and the metro.  I arrived at the Spagna, the station near the Spanish Steps, hundeds of people even thought it was around five in the afternoon.  But all so stunning.  I walked along a street and had the most amazing view looking over this beautiful city.

Sometimes I actually forget I live here and then I am suddenly jolted back to reality when I see something like this. Its hard to describe the feeling of pure joy at seeing all this history.  I love walking on the streets that millions of people have walked on for centuries.  If only the stones could talk!

When I went for a cafe in the piazza which is what I do normally the view from the night before was still imprinted on my brain.  I went for a little walk and saw these beautiful amaryllis and knew I had to paint both of them togethere.

And I am so pleased with the results.

For me as an artist Rome is filled with inspirational subjects, I am very fortunate to live in this wonderful city.

This weekend I am going to Napoli with my husband who is speaking at a book launch for a colleague.

I have been to Napoli a few times but its kind of a crazy place which I called the wild west.  When I was last there I was staying near the Piazza and the railway station and there had been a garbage collection strike which had been going on for many months.  The beautiful pizza was filled with overflowing big garbage bins which the some of the angry locals set alight every night, so the air was filled with fire and stinking garbage.  It was not that great.  We caught a bus to go to the port and were stopped just past the piazza by a road block of any people protesting and had to get of the bus, could have been very bad for us but it was ok.  My last memory looking out of the hotel before fleeing to the airport was a long line of army trucks driving past my window in the rain.

Lago di Nemi

I decided to have a little drawing/painting trip to a little place called Lake Nemi, about 40 minutes by car out of Rome.  It is so beautiful, the lake where Romans spent the summer rowing huge boats on the volcanic lake.  Its so beautiful and so uniquely different.  

I took my gorgeous dog Lucy, who also loved it!  She is a hunter of all things moving, mice, pigeons and of course her absolute favorite - Cats, not that she catches them.  There were cats everywhere, strutting up and down the tiny streets.  The cats of Italy are very fierce creatures, they live by their wits and are looked after and fed by everyone in the neighborhood and afraid of nothing!! including my dog.

The beautiful thing about the lake apart from the magnificent history, was that when you looked at it, it was different everytime, because of the sun moving across the sky.  

It has been a place where painters have gone for centuries to paint the lake.  I was very inspired and painted non-stop for five days in a row.

This painting by George Inness  1857 is one of many paintings done over the centuries of the beautiful Largo di Nemi.

Its very exciting for me as an artist to be able to go to such a historical place where so many artists have gone to paint before me.   That is one of the most incredible things about living in a country such as Italy.

Largo di Nemi I  

Largo di Nemi III

Sheryl A. Cooke

''One of A Kind''

Inspired by the trip back from Padova I decided that I would take up the suggestion of driving to Croatia with my husband for the summer holiday.  I tried hard not to think of the oven of a car and to concentrate on all the great photographs about Croatia that I had seen and all the beautiful places that we planned to visit.  And besides all that they serve lots of lamb dishes I read and Italy, unlike Australia does not embrace the concept of lamb roast.... and it seems to be only available from the butcher at Easter.

I did manage to do a few little paintings which I do not consider good enough to put online but its a fantastic country filled with sweet people.

I did manage however, to do some little paintings...

I have discovered, and I know it was not lost, a colour called sepia... so delicious, beautiful with rose colours.

I am setting up a new web site at present so its good to pick up a paint brush and paint.

On the way back from Padova the heat was unbearable, or perhaps that was me, I hate the heat and my sweet husband does not like airconditioning so it was a long trip, all I wanted was to go home....

Out on the big main highway, the A1, between Florence and Bologna the trucks are bumper to bumper along a skinny two lane highway with mountains one side and a kilometer drop the other side, (a slight exaggeration) but really, really bad and very scary for me.  In Australia I loved driving and did lots from one end of the country to the other, but here in Italy its a different story.  All the Italians drive like they are late for the most important moment of their lives, my husband included.  So hooning down the freeway at 130 kilometers an hour, passing six big, long huge trucks, one after another which are all about 3 cm from where I am sitting in this little hot box of a car is not my idea of the best fun I have every had.  Consequently the armrest of my door is indented by fingernails trying to hang on.  And of course being a woman I must say something or perhaps even at times quite a bit.  

Consequently I have refused point blank to go out on that road again.  So we have found a new highway which is so much more to my liking, two lanes but not many trucks and not many cars either and spectacular scenery going through like this beautiful scene in Umbria.

Another beautiful inspiration for my paintings, shame I have no time right now to do anything except take photographs.

This little gem of street is in a little village in Deruta, near Perugia.  It is a glorious place and the tiny restaurant we found served some of the most delicious food I have ever tasted.  Deruta has the most incredible Italian ceramics and a couple years back, before I was married to my husband we were there and he said darling why don't you go and have a look at some of the ceramics.  So off I go and when he joins me I say to him, its beautiful but it is a bit expensive and I don't know what to get.  Darling here's my wallet, buy what you want... so what was a woman to do... I found six stunning hand painted bowls and a great big one, fantastically perfect for pasta.  The bill came to 439 euros and he had 440 euros in his wallet.  Perfect.... have you heard that expression... face like a cats' bum... well all I could do was laugh so much.  My husband originally came from the region of Genova and spent 5 years in Scotland.  The people from Genova are known for their tight fistedness, but how was I to know.  I love those plates!!!

WELCOME TO MY WEB BLOG....

I am an Australian artist and this is one of my favorite paintings which I have hanging in my apartment in Rome and I look at everyday and love it everyday.







I have just spent an incredible European summer, tripping around the world.  My First stop was back to Australia to catch up with some great friends and family in May.

And as you can see by my Photographs, my friends live in some incredible places.

And I cannot disagree with the rest of people in the world that Italy has some of the best, most delicious beautiful food you could ever eat, sometimes my little heart craves something different.  We went to a Mexican restaurant in Queensland where the food was so good.  I had to take a photograph to show my Italian family how real mexican food looked in other countries.

We had recently gone to a Mexican restaurant in Rome where they waved one avocado over 50 plates and charged you 20 euros a plate.  Incredibly disappointing.  But expected.  The only food to eat in Rome is roman food.  And that is magnificent!!

A quick trip back to Rome, or perhaps a very long trip and then I was on the road to Padova in the north not to far from Venice.  My husband who is a scientist was giving a lecture to some students at the University in Padova.

Padova is very beautiful and during the summer and all Italians wander around looking tanned and beautiful as only Italians can do.

While wandering to the piazza we crossed this beautiful tiny canal into which someone has thrown a hand full of long stem roses, sadly you cannot see them in the photograph.  So romantic and so beautiful.  And such inspiration for painting yet to be explored.