Well, the illustration I created from the sketch is now used on the cheese label. I’ve tasted the cheese and it’s wonderful! Pick some up at your local cheese shop today.

Last spring, I was interviewed by Danny Gregory to coincide with the February release of his book “An Illustrated Journey.” Danny included 40 sketch artists including me in this collection about travel sketching. You can watch the interview here.

I don’t often paint commissions but when I was asked to paint the Crawford family’s former house in Windsor, I couldn’t resist it’s charm.

My sister is taking a study abroad program this summer and just arrived in Greece. She brought along a copy of my book The Artist on the Road: Impressions of Greece and was kind enough to take a few pictures of the sites I painted when I was there. How exciting to see my art book travel back to where it was created.

Note from my sister: “Unfortunately they’re restoring the Parthenon from your cover, but it was still very cool to compare. Also, we had taken apples from breakfast with us. I had your book open and one of the guys traveling with us asked why you had painted an apple, so I read him that part from your book where that woman gave you an apple. Then we took our apples out of bags and ate them. It was a cool moment.”

While I was painting the Erechtheon, a Greek woman came up to me and commented on my drawing. Then she pulled out an apple out of her bag and gave it to me. She was so nice.

Erechtheon with Karyatids

Porch of the Karyatids

My Sister (Bear) is on the left and her instructor Dr. White is on the right.

My book, Artist on the Road: Impressions of Greece, is available on Amazon.

In 1881, Andrea Sbarbono developed an agricultural colony just south of Cloverdale that would later become known as Italian Swiss Colony. In the 1960s, the Colony produced TV commercials that strangely, featured a little old man as a winemaker costumed in an Alpine hat and lederhosen. He closed the commercial with the classic phrase, “That little old winemaker, me!”

Today the wine facility is home to Cellar No. 8 winery. Near the tasting room, two vintage train cars sit in the middle of a vineyard, a carryover from glory days of the 1960s when the Italian Swiss Colony tasting room received more than 10,000 visitors per year.

Amazon has just put my book “The Artist on the Road: Impressions of Greece” on sale at 46% off! I don’t know how long it will be available at this price (it could be permanent). Pick up your copy today!

Bonus! Anyone who purchases (or have already purchased) a paperback copy of “The Artist on the Road” can download a FREE ebook version (epub or pdf) of the book. Please email me for details: Richard(at)Artstudios(dot)com.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, located in Asti just south of Cloverdale, stands in a serene landscape of vineyards and mountains. The church was built in 1960 by the agricultural co-op known as the Italian Swiss Colony that produced old world wines. In keeping with the spirit of the colony, wine barrel staves were used to construct the roof and interior wood workings of the church. Its exterior was designed to echo the shape of a wine barrel.

My Sunday Column “Sense of Place” usually runs at the bottom of the Towns section every other Sunday, but today my work was printed in the “Vignette” section at the top of the page. Today’s story is about Robert Rue Vineyards located in the town of Fulton. Bob and Carlene Rue, the winery owners, are some of the nicest people I’ve meet and make some great wines too.

Here is the text (I know it’s a bit hard to read the newspaper from my scan):

South of Fulton and down an old country road, a row of plum trees call attention to Robert Rue Winery. Bob and Carlene Rue purchased this 10-acre, 100 year old vineyard in 1973, and over the years have sold their grapes to many well known local wineries. The vineyard is a field-blend of predominantly Zinfandel, interplanted with Petite Sirah, Carignane, and Alicante Bouschet grapes.

In 2001, Bob and Carlene’s long held dream of producing their own wine became a reality. With the help of winemaker Dan Barwick, and before him, winemaker Carol Shelton, the wine blended from Rue vines has garnered many awards. The first vintage was produced at a custom crush facility and the finished wine stored in their garage. In 2010 the Rue family built a new facility on their property to accommodate an expanding production of almost 1,000 cases per year.