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11/27/2020

Thanksgiving Reflections...It's the Little Things

Chris Brandley / 2 Comments

As we all know, 2020 has not been what anyone expected. My heart goes out to those who have experienced the ultimate loss. This has been a difficult year for many. To be honest, I’d been dreading the holidays. I’ve never missed a Thanksgiving or Christmas with extended family and was sad knowing this would be the 1^st.

But…

After allowing myself to be sad for a moment, I made the choice to focus on the multitude of blessings we have received. Rarely do I get to spend an entire day with both my husband and my 21-year-old daughter who (although living at home, we rarely see as she is finishing up college this year!) This was an extremely special day. We watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and laughed about some of the floats, and then all 3 of us cooked in our tiny kitchen together. Maddison and Tyler aren’t crazy about Turkey, so for the 1^st time we didn’t have Turkey as our main meal…wait, there was one other time that we didn’t get turkey and ended up at a Chinese restaurant by accident (reminded me of “A Christmas Story”) but that is another story for later! Anyway, I digress.

We heated up a honey glazed spiral ham (yum!), and had the other traditional sides like mashed potatoes, stuffing, garlic green beans with lemon zest, and a few delicious desserts.

After lunch, I watched my daughter with pride as she packed up a meal for a couple who was planning to be with their family, but the day before they got exposed to someone with COVID and had to stay home. She has such a compassionate heart.

Late afternoon as the sun began to sink, we headed to the park with Tibby, our yorkie-poo, to walk off the meal and enjoy the incredible display of fall colors (a rarity to have fall colors here in North Texas!)

Tibby the Yorkie-poo

We finished our day off on the couch watching “The Crown”. (If you haven’t seen the series about the British Royal Family, I highly recommend it!) My heart was happy, and what I had originally dreaded, became one of my favorite Thanksgivings.

2020 has been such a great reminder to me that it really is the little things that matter…which are actually the big things!

I’d love to know how your Thanksgiving went – let me know in the comments below!

11/22/2020

Hooked on Italy

Chris Brandley / 1 Comment

If you read my last blog post, “My 2^nd Taste of Italy”, you know that I left off with planning my first artist’s retreat in South France. (Another place I’m hooked on! But we’ll talk about that later!)

Once I experienced the connectivity with like-minded creatives who also love to travel, I was hooked. I felt like three of the things I’m most passionate about, (Art, travel, and teaching) had merged into one, and my purpose was confirmed and fulfilled.

As soon as I returned from France, I began planning the next European artist retreat…Tuscany! I had originally planned two, back to back retreat sessions, but they filled so quickly (within a week!) that we added an additional third session. I wondered if it would be too much to handle, but as it turned out, it just energized me and I enjoyed every moment of every session, and each session was unique in its own right.

Lucca, 20 minutes from our hosts in Tuscany

We stayed in a 16^th Century Italian villa in the hills of remote Tuscany. Although it was quiet and peaceful, it was only a 20 minute drive into Lucca, with many other interesting villages scattered nearby.

View from the balcony at Casa Berti

Each morning I was excited to wake up early, and watch the sunrise over the Tuscan valley below as the roosters announced a new day.

All of the artists and their companions (who I now am blessed to call my friends!) would gather in the small traditional Tuscan kitchen for breakfast, and then the artists would head to the beautiful art studio on the property for a day of instruction and painting either “En Plein Air” (fancy French term for in the open air) or in studio, while the companions enjoyed walking mountain trails, getting in the WW2 jeep to see some of the war sites nearby, or relaxing and getting massages.

Other days were spent on excursions, visiting vineyards with lunch and wine tasting, shopping & dining in quaint villages, or trying fresh cheese at a local sheep farm…and of course, spending some time painting and sketching while we were out.

Tuscan Tiles – we paint this painting in my course The Essence of Italy

All the while during each of my journeys to Italy, I’d been gathering material to create my first online course, The Essence of Italy. Creating an artistic experience that I could share with other artists had been on my mind for a long time; and after several key factors fell into place, my team worked for over 9 months planning and filming, editing and building an entirely new website to host this artful journey…and it’s finally here! I don’t think it’s a mistake or coincidence that the timing of this course came when it did, with the world pandemic invading our lives. The Essence of Italy is the perfect anecdote for the lack of traveling that’s affected most of us, and it’s a great time to find renewed inspiration during these uncertain times.

11/20/2020

My Second Taste of Italy

Chris Brandley / Comment on this

My 2nd taste of Italy (see “My First Taste of Italy here) wasn’t until a long 19 years later. I would have returned much sooner, but we were blessed with a sweet baby girl in 1999, and as you may know, life gets busy with a baby! When she turned 3, I made a huge career change and went from a reliable income with insurance benefits, to starting a new business from scratch creating specialty designer finishes and murals in homes and businesses across Texas. Long story short, this evolved into a full-time painting career, which eventually led to teaching workshops in the United States and Europe. I’m jumping ahead, though…let’s back up.

In July of 2016, my brother was planning a trip to Italy, and he asked me to go with him. It took me an entire few seconds to say yes! I had been dreaming of teaching an artist workshop in Europe, but I think fear was holding me back. I decided I would take this opportunity to do a little research while I was over there to come up with a plan.

My brother handed me the reins and let me plan the entire trip. (This might not be fun for some people, but I was in “research and planning” Heaven!)

We landed in Milan 3 months later, and headed straight to one of the most beautiful places I’d ever seen, Lake Como! Being in the foothills of the Alps, it felt like a cross between Switzerland and Italy. The air was crisp and smelled like a combination of pine and bonfire. The parks along the lake were peaceful, pristine and perfect in every way.

Other stops on our list included Verona, Venice, Cinque Terre, and Orvieto. What struck me the most was that because Italy is so old, there are centuries of architectural styles that changed over the years, with every era as beautiful as the rest in its own right. I felt as if I were in so many of the paintings I had studied in Art History.

Being in Italy again seemed to simplify things for me…and teaching there didn’t seem as far-fetched or daunting as it did before. This sealed the deal, and as soon as I returned to Texas, I began making plans for my 1^st artist retreat, which took place in southern France in 2018.

11/13/2020

My First Taste of Italy

Chris Brandley / Comment on this

I lived in Holland for 3 years as a child and we traveled Europe extensively during that time, however, I didn’t get the chance to experience Italy until 20 years later.

During college, I had studied Art History and was intrigued by Italian architecture. Visiting Italy became the top of my bucket list!

After the start of my career as a public school art teacher in 1991, I began to save to make this dream a reality. Finally, in 1997 my husband Tyler and I were able to travel back to Europe, with Italy being one of the 7 countries on our tour.

We began our journey spending some time with my childhood Dutch friends and then hopped from one country to the next. Upon arriving in Florence, Italy; our taxi driver picked us up and we made our way through the narrow streets. It wasn’t long before the famous Duomo appeared. It was definitely a show stopper! Actually seeing the cathedral in person was like stepping back in time. I was captivated by the incredible detailing of every inch of the building, and at that moment understood why it took decades to build, and centuries to decorate.

~On a side note, the dome (“cupola”) itself was an ingenious invention …the architects had a vision of how they wanted it designed when they began creating it in 1294. The problem was that the engineering on how to do this hadn’t been developed yet, so the cathedral sat “dome-less” for 124 years! Finally, an architect Filippo Brunelleschi came up with a plan and the work of art was amazingly completed in 1436. Along the way, Brunelleschi had to invent new tools and techniques in order to bring it into fruition. The cathedral actually helped set the tone of the Renaissance and sparked inspiration among artists and engineers across Europe. ~

We arrived at our hotel along the river, freshened up, and then strolled across the romantic Ponte Vecchio Bridge back into the heart of the city. A café right on the piazza beckoned to us, and we engaged in the wonderful Italian cuisine as we were serenaded by an accordion player. Our view was of the (fake) statue of David by Michelangelo. (The real one originally stood in the same place for 3 centuries, however in 1873 it was moved into the Accademia Gallery to protect it from damage). Ironically, in 1991, Piero Cannata, a deranged artist attacked it with a hammer and damaged David’s toes.

As we sat I reflected on what a blessing it was to be in the presence of so much beauty and history and knew that somehow, someway, it would be a part of my artistic career and future.

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