Rome Italy through the eyes of a talented American artist



Kelly Medford:  see her paintings at  http://kellymedford.com/ 

After reading a post on sketching in Rome, by Browsing Rome , I discovered Kelly Medford an expat and an accomplished artist living and working in Rome.   Browsing Rome always shares a wonderful insiders' view of life in Rome, restaurants and interesting places to visit, that tourists may not find.


Kelly was in the middle of a project of 120 Days of  Painting and she welcomed my request to 'shadow' or follow her during my December trip to Rome for Home to Italy.             

Our meeting on Via Margutta, a small street between Piazza Popolo and the Spanish Steps has a history for artists and now galleries and restaurants.  One of the shop owners remembers Kelly and watches as she sets up and starts to paint a street scene.

 
 



 Kelly travels by bike to each location she plans to paint.  Her 'French' style easel/paintbox folded compactly and worn as a back pack.

Kelly has a wonderful plan to paint Rome, it's historic buildings, settings, hidden places before streets change, buildings renovated or worse, torn down and replaced with modern construction.

Painting in all parts of Rome and in all types of weather.  This day it was cold but Kelly was committed to accomplish her mission even with an annoying blogger asking questions.

 It was exciting to watch the street scene come alive under Kelly's brushes.   From a quick outline to buildings, doorways and even the mini truck in the street.

 
 Kelly has a wonderful plan to paint all over Rome.   As you will see on her web site there are areas not mentioned in tour books.
 Her hundreds of paintings will make a GREAT app tour to search Rome an match the sites with her painting.
 


         

 

 

At the end of the day, Kelly packs up all her supplies and the painting into a wooden artist box and pedals to the next location. 

 



Kelly is offering sketching tours of Rome and for those with he desire to do more, week long painting tours in Tuscany and other locations.   Check her web site for details.


A very big thank you to Kelly for sharing her day with me and introducing me to a café nearby that is packed with 'naked'  statues and other carvings.  They also have the best cake!