ROME: Baths of Caracalla

ROME: View from the Janiculum

I've devised a plan. The Janiculum (Gianicolo) offers the best view of Rome's cityscape, its layered skylines of domes and monuments. Instead of wandering to the Seven Hills of Rome and making drawings, I will draw at several points along this ridge, across the Tiber from the city.  

These rough sketches will serve as underlay and components for creating an expansive View drawing which combines all drawings from different view points.

ROME: Piazza Navona

ROME: Pantheon

ROME: Piazza di Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere

I'm drawn to drawing piazzas. The complexity of space - the variety of facades that form the walls of this outdoor "room", the point around which the space and the people revolve, the entrances and views - compels me to draw in an effort to piece it all together, relationally.

Seeing the space change throughout the day is the privilege of one who lives near the piazza.

ROME: San Pietro in Montorio

ROME: Bird's Eye Beginnings

I've come to ROME to learn the lineage of and try techniques at Birds Eye View Drawings. Having arrived and settled in a bit I scouted the hill behind my Trastevere apartment, the Janiculum, for the View.

I spent hours in the Special Collections library at the University of Virginia looking at hundreds of Maps and Views of Rome, before leaving. Imagine my delight at finding a 1736 View from the Janiculum posted at the Piazzale G. Garibaldi.

I am in for some intense drawing and brought some new tools, inherited from my grandfather when he passed. He was a printer. I have his pens pouch - and was surprised to find in it a clear eraser shield.

But I am SO HAPPY to BE HERE! I'll take the tough work of drawing for the rewards of living in Italy for a month.