Typical (?) View of Florence

From high atop a secret location- looking at Florence.

Successful Workshop- Thanks, Students!

We worked hard- really hard. Here you see students interviewing one another as preparation for an intensive drawing workshop based upon their experiences, thus far, in Florence (you can find the assignment further down on this blog).

Well, it's a little bit easier to focus on drawing in such a beautiful work space. Especially when there is cappuccino nearby...

But it wasn't all work... students take a break mid-critique.

And it wasn't all drawing- though the food IS so beautiful you feel inspired to draw it as well! My new friend, Giuseppe, gives the okey-dokey to some espresso.

And, let's face it, any country that promotes crazy Chihuahua Pirate graffiti is doing something very, very right!

Our Piazza

I can never explain the experience of living as an artist in Florence... but here is some of what I see.

This is the Piazza we walk through every day on our way home. Piazza Santissima Annunziata.
This is our Piazza in a print by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711-67). During the Renaissance Florentines left abandoned children on the steps to the right, of The Ospital degli Innocenti, designed by Brunelleschi around 1420

Now this man sits on the steps everyday. So do artists, drawing. And tourists and travelers. Gypsies and museum goers. Something different is always happening.

So much in one place.

~Jenna