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Recently, I entered a contest called, “Like Going Home Again.” The contest was sponsored by Fine Arts America, and my painting, “New Friends,” was one of 163 paintings being judged by the general public. The painting must have pulled at a few heart strings because it placed second in the contest.

The painting depicts a little girl feeding her horse from her hat with her dog at her side. Growing up in Central New York on a small farm, which had been in my family for five generations, this painting brings back a lot of memories of my own childhood. My earliest recollections are of our old farm horse, Tony, who was my closest and best friend. My first rides were on his ample back, and when I started school there was Tony waiting for me as I got off the school bus waiting to welcome me home and walk me up to the house. My second best friend was our German Shepherd, Lucky.

Lucky was appropriately named for not only was he lucky that we found him when only a puppy abandoned in the pricker bushes, but he saved our little family and our house from a fire when I was a small child.

The painting, “New Friends,” is exactly like the contest’s name for me--“Like Going Home Again.”

I am pleased to announce that my oil painting, “Dining on Lake Como,” won 2nd place in the “Waiting Room Art” contest. This was a juried contest sponsored by Fine Art America, and was selected out of 231 paintings from various artists around the globe.

I love this painting and I’m glad to see that the feelings are mutual. Even though the setting is rather formal, the ambience of the scene is inviting. It’s not hard to imagine yourself sitting at such a table, and lazing away a warm and sunny afternoon in the shade of the vine-covered portico at one of the many wealthy villas which surround the lake.

Such a setting has a very calming effect, and is ideal for a place where people gather in an otherwise stressful situation--such as a waiting room.

Every few days I check my website (www.WishfulTravelerGallery.com) to see how many people have visited; and the other day I hit a milestone when I saw that exactly 20,000 people had visited the site. Less than a week later, I see that I now have had 20,487 visitors to the website and counting. This milestone isn’t bad considering I started the website less than two years ago.

Watching the traffic to my website has been like reading a road map. When I first started downloading pictures of my paintings, it was like going down one of our winding country roads up here in Central New York with a few visitors to the site. In fact, the scenery was pretty much like our CNY farmland with scenes of old barns, country churches, country Christmases, horses and carriages, and farm kids doing what farm kids like to do. However, on my road map I found myself taking a turn and following my dream of traveling through Europe through my paintings.

Instead of winding country roads, now it’s meandering canals with mirrored reflections from colorful buildings hugging their banks. Strolling through charming, little Italian villages along the Mediterranean to boating the Grand Canal in Venice. My new map winds through medieval towns along the Alsace Wine Trail in France, to visiting castles in Germany and so much more.

Of 20,487 visitors to my website, 11,721 of them had viewed my 60 paintings of European art. And 8,766 visitors have traveled along my country map and viewed my 86 paintings of CNY.

It seems like that turn I took from bucolic country paintings to European art was the right turn to take.

Well I might not have won a trip to Lake Como, Italy, but I did win a contest on Fine Art America for my oil painting, “Dining on Lake Como.” The contest was called, “A Table For Two,”

The views on Lake Como are spectacular, lending to a wonderful world full of dreams and promises. I have done several paintings now of this northern region in Italy, and have concluded that it would be hard to find a bad view from any angle. Riding the ferry service, strolling through several little villages that dot the lake, and visiting majestic villas with their marvelous statues which look over the lake are truly inspiring. In fact, the scenery on Lake Como is so tantalizing that even the most stalwart home body feels a twinge of the wanderlust.

“Dining On Lake Como” depicts a table set under an opulent portico in the wonderful, and famous, village of Bellagio. And yes, this was the inspiration behind Las Vegas’ five-star Bellagio Hotel and Casino. The table is set for guest dining al fresco overlooking the lake and the spectacular mountain views beyond.

So even though I haven’t won a trip to Lake Como, when I look at this painting I can almost feel that I am there once again. Bellisimo Lake Como, well done!

I am so excited and honored to be a featured artist from June 28 to July 27, with an opening reception June 28 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Rome Art Community Center in Gallery C. The center features three art galleries, and the Rome Regional Show will be displayed during the same timeframe.

I love the setting, the building itself is such a good fit for me with a wonderful European look and feel to it. I can’t wait to show my newest paintings depicting so many wonderful places in France, Germany and Italy. I hope they will inspire other people as much as they have inspired me.

The gallery hours are Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday and Saturday from 10a.m. to 2 p.m.

I hope to see many of my friends there, and hopefully make some new ones along the way. Oh--did I forget to tell you that the show is in Rome, New York, not Rome, Italy, but gee it sure does have a nice ring to it…doesn’t it?

Last week’s blog featured my painting, “Evening in Venice,” so I guess I might as well keep the trend going with another one of my newest Italian landscape paintings, “Early Morning in Venice.” I love early mornings because it’s such a nice, quiet, and peaceful time of the day. I am really happy how in this painting the sun’s warm glow hits against the old worn buildings give them a deceptive look of cheerfulness and warmth. Gently, the early morning breeze floats over the water and gives the water a slight choppiness which slaps happily against the building’s edge.

I love the vibrant colors and the depths of the doorways leading into places of dark mystery. All in all, the scene is very relaxing and I find myself yearning once again for a trip to Italy.

In all of the years that I have painted, I can’t remember ever painting a night scene in oils…until now. I just finished, “An Evening in Venice,” and I was amazed at how amazing this night scene turned out. The contrast of light and dark are still there, especially with the dramatic effects given off by light streaming out of lit windows and spreading out onto the streets and water surrounding the buildings.

The setting is one of the side canals in Venice, Italy, and the colors are very festive with an air of Carnival permeating through the air. I chose the dusky time of day, between daylight and dark. It is a time in the day which remains rather mysterious, a transition between business hours and leisure time. So prepare yourself to step out, imagine the coolness of the night breezes coming in off the water’s edge. Think of lights coming on and going off as people move from room to room, and take a few minutes to enjoy the smell of flowers wafting through the air.

If you are lucky enough to be visiting Cooperstown, New York, between now and June 1, 2012, you can see it at the 21st Annual Regional Juried Art Show called, Essential Art, at the Cooperstown Art Association Galleries on 22 Main Street. The gallery is located across the street from the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Cooperstown Library on the first level. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday (closed on Tuesdays) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.

April 1 was our sons 30th birthday and it only seems appropriate that I would finish my newest painting on this day of Neuschwanstein Castle (in winter). Like me, our son has always had a passion for European castles. Neuschwanstein is the famous castle nestled in the Bavarian Alps, better known as “The Cinderella Castle.” It is also the first painting of a winter scene in oil that I have done in a very long time.

I anxiously await a new high-powered camera so I will be able to share this and the many others that I have completed since returning home from New Mexico.

Recently, I finished a painting of my beloved Portofino, Italy, and am happy to say I have already begun my newest one of that lovely little fishing village situated in the Liguria region of Italy.

March is here and what better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than to have one of my paintings, “The Back Stairs,” from my Italian landscape painting collection picked for a month-long show in New York City.

As a member of the National Association of Women Artists, it is an honor have been selected to show one of my paintings at the Riverside Public Library located on 127 Amsterdam Ave. (right across the street from the Lincoln Center). The name of the show is EV(e)OLUTION II. The exhibit will run from March 1 to 31.

As part of the show the Association made a poster of “The Back Stairs,” which is to be hung from one of several large windows looking out onto the busy street advertising the show. If anyone happens to be in Manhattan during the month of March and able to, I would really like to have a picture of the building showing where the poster has been hung. I will happily give the photographer a free set of greeting cards featuring any one of my paintings they choose.

This is a great opportunity for myself and who knows what might evolve out of EV(e)OLUTION II. If you get a chance, I hope you will visit the exhibit and enjoy the talent of the female artists who have been chosen for this special show.

After spending the last two months in New Mexico (for the birth of our new granddaughter), I am finally back in Central New York and once again painting. I have a few more finishing touches to put on my newest painting of Brugge, a lovely old city in Belgium, and I’m already looking forward to my next painting.

My passion to return to Europe was refueled when I found out that the plane I boarded going from Atlanta to JFK in NY was continuing on to Venice, Italy. As an artist of European landscape paintings and a new grandmother, it seemed rather mean that I had to disembark the plane and watch it load back up and leave for it’s final destination to Italy.

Once again, I find myself living my dream to return to Europe through my paintings which actually isn’t a bad thing. And now I have a beautiful little baby girl to think about, which makes the life I lead all that much better.