Travel Watercolors from Southern Italy

3 straight ahead watercolor sketches from recent travels. Above, a small watercolor done on site of a small chiesa high above a village on the Amalfi coast, Santa Maria del Bando. The steepness of the hillsides is hard to convey in this view. The terraces are for both the humongous lemons that they grow there as well as the little olives.

Above, a narrow piazza, Largo di Santa Maria Maddalena, most often deserted except for the odd person who lingered for a moment to look out to the water nearby. The Baroque facade just suggested by a few swoops and arcs. That period isn’t my favorite thing but there is music there in those symmetrical rhythms.

The little village of Atrani itself is a marvel of compact, organic growth along the river they call Dragone. This is where Dutch artist M. C. Escher made his temporary home during several stays in the area in the 1930s.