painterdave's VirtualTourist Home Page

This is a photo taken after the watercolor workshop at the Wigwam Club held at Il Presidio on the outskirts of Padova, It.
This workshop was one of the most fun days I had in Padova, and the people who came to paint, 37 of them were very gentle and gracious. They all came away with a nice painting, and I was very proud of the end results. We even had 6 junior high age painters who stuck with it to the end.
After the workshop we broke for a great italian feast and lots of visiting. I made many friends on this day. You can tell from their smiles that they enjoyed it, too.
I hope to go back in September and lead another workshop for the Wigwam Club. There is also another group who want me to come and do a workshop.

It looks like I am helping, but she really didn't need much help. I was just checking to see how thick the sauce was. Her kitchen was nice and roomy, and i enjoyed seeing a real italian kitchen and how they had it set up.
This day was a real blast for me. I am the cook in our home, and so you know i was enjoying this a lot.
Orietta's mom is a very sweet lady, and she was very good to me while there.
My California shirts were a topic of conversation as they don't see shirts much like this in Italy. :-)

I am getting a cooking lesson in making pasticcio by Orietta's mother. She hand rolled the pasta and made the sauce from scratch. When we finally got to taste it, it was really terrific. When I got home it was the first thing I made. But it didn't taste as good as this one, made in a real Italian kitchen. I guess I need to go back and get some more tips.
All this mention of cooking would make you think that i was not painting In Padua, but I did get to paint scenes of the center's piazzas.

I got a lot of cooking lessons during this trip. I also came prepared to teach them some cooking lessons of food from the southwest.
I brought corn tortillas and one night made Orietta and Paolo Mexican food, complete with guacamole. A second afternoon I taught them how to make sushi. We had to hunt real hard to find sushi ingredients such as wasabi, soy sauce, and marin. We had a lot of fun, but I am not sure they will ever try sushi again. the Italian palette is very particular. They are not so used to eating different foods as Americans.
One other afternoon i made them a tapenade.... but it had garlic and I think there was too much for them. They always joked about the tapenade walking around in the fridge.

One night we went to a well known Agritourismo vinyard. The man below has two sons who have won many awards for cooking and they hang on the wall, he has also won awards for his wine production. Here we are in the attic of his barn where he hangs his sausage and meat. He was very proud to show me this special place. In another room he takes wheels of parmessan cheese and soaks them in his wine. The meal we had that night was 6 courses, and was the best I have every had in all my visits to Italy. However, better than the food was making new friends and getting to know them better. i hope to go back in September and visit with them again.

These cement tanks hold thousands of bottles of wine when they are full. My VT friend, Orietta, and i got the full tour and it was nice to be able to ask so many questions about the history of this vinyard. There is also a quite good collection of old bottles that they have displayed.
Later we tasted the wine during dinnner and it was exceptional.

I made a trip to Livorno to see my VT friend Raffaella, her husband Fede and their new baby Giullia. I am very proud to have Raffaella as a friend, she write books for the people who tour the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze. Raffaella took me to a special exhibit of paintings in the afternoon and she told me a lot of things about each painting and the painter.

Here is a photo from my exhibition. The man who sponsored this exhibition Carlo Scotton is receiving a special commendation from my mayor in Parker, Colorado, which thanks him for supporting me. I was very pleased to have my paintings in Italy and to share them with my friends and others there.
I hope to have another exhibition in September, 2008.
You can see some of my paintings hanging behind us.