
Mt. Vesuvius from Herculaneum
Today was a rough day — of painting that is. We went to SeaFresh for our 4th of July breakfast and parade-watching. (I also joined the Peace group as it went by SeaFresh) Then came home and knew I had a couple of hours before family came over for BBQ’ing and fun.
I had thought I would do a fireworks painting – and started one. But… since I tend to only paint what I either see or what I photograph, I didn’t realize how bad my photo was until I started to paint.
I realized that painting fireworks with a palette knife wasn’t working for me. I paint with a palette knife now – but I’m not opposed to using a brush. It’s just that right now, at this time, I want to explore so much with a knife that if I “give in” and pick up a brush, I might not discover all I can do with a knife.
So… after scraping off the firework painting, I decided to paint Mt. Vesuvius.
We had visiting both Pompeii and Herculaneum in one day. They were both unique and different. Pompeii was larger but Herculaneum seemed to have better art. Was it because they had more money? I don’t know.
Anyway, while we were standing in Herculaneum, I looked over and saw Mt. Vesuvius towering over the town and the ruins of the ancient town. I realized I was looking at this volcano just like people had looked at it 2,000 years ago – the difference was then, it had a top. Now it didn’t because it blew up!
I felt the weight of time pressing on me. And, I blinked my eye and time passed.