ROMAN SUN { A Year In Painting }

JAMES APONOVICH 
A YEAR IN PAINTING

"VITEA E BREVIS
ARS E LONGUS"

As our planet makes its journey around a star we call the Sun, I make my own journey in paintings, each week I present some aspect of our shared life experience through a medium of paint on canvas.

"Old men ought to be explorers"
-T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

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ROMAN SUN

(detail)


Everyone should have a city that speaks personally to them. For many it's Paris, while others are enthralled by New York. For me it's Rome. Although the Catholic thing does get to me at times, I still find Rome endlessly exiting and yet comforting.

"You are either a Roman or Florentine, You cannot possibly be both."
- Barbara Rossow

All cities in Italy have an abundance of tour groups, Venice and Florence come to mind and Rome has its own share ( especially in a Jubilee year). But Rome benefits from being larger so it affords many back streets to escape to.

(detail)

But as you escape you just may find yourself in front of the house Raphael lived in or a church where Borromini is buried. It is not uncommon to be walking down an unfamiliar street and find a Roman era ruin or a column still standing yet incorporated into a wall. It's amazing, Rome is very old with many layers.

(detail)



A HOLE IN THE WALL

One day, when I was at the American Academy, Beth and I visited the gardens of the Villa Aurelia on the Gianicolo Hill overlooking the city. We came across a square opening in the wall that separates the garden from the street. Someone had placed a terra-cotta vase in it. Out came the sketchbooks.




TAKE YOUR TIME

It seems that I am always rushed to finish a painting, deadlines, shows, etc.
Not this time.

James Aponovich
Sunflowers Over Rome
Oil on canvas, 32" x 28"







Copyright 2017 James Aponovich

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