Marianna M. Duford
...an artist with wanderlust
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Marianna M. Duford
...an artist with wanderlust.

"Soliloquy"
8x16 studio oil
$625 framed


website gallery of paintings

A bittersweet journey

5/27/2014

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May 4th I journeyed to France and then Italy with a group of women, some of which I've been friends with for over 30 years...all connected  by the circus we had businesses at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  Women with free spirits and strong personalities and a common love for each other.  We  gathered in Paris for 4 funfilled shopping and sight seeing days.  I was able to paint only one morning, the first one, as it poured rain every other day we were there.   It was a  painting  of the Luxembourg Gardens and I set up under a tree as it was misting and spitting rain.  I was set upon by a group of about 30 Japanese tourists and am in about 100 photos...eeeegads!

We had a journey that went down the road less travelled as our dear friend , Sharon Tysseling, suffered a brain hemmerahge only 6 days  into our adventure, the day after we journeyed to Isle sur la Sorgue in Provence.  Thankfully one of our crew, Leslie Harris, spoke fluent French and was able to go with the ambulance along with Sue Pappas and Marla Ferrara to be with her as they sped her to the hospital in Avignon.  There they made the decision to air flight her to the hospital in Marseille where they performed emergency brain surgery to relieve the pressure of an enormous brain clot.  We had to call her husband, Mark and tell him what had happened.  He flew to Marseille the next day where endless days passed at we all tried to navigate a medical system in a foreign country where the doctors and staff spoke very little if no english.  I try to put myself in his shoes and wonder how I would have been able to do what he had to do if he hadn't had the help of loving friends to help him through this horrific experience.   Mark arranged to have her flown home by medi jet where they said there was just too much damage and he had to remove life support.   It has been an unbelievably sad trip and I lost my heart for painting although I did do a small one of the pool house in the gardens of the villa we rented the day of her stroke while waiting for phone calls.


We continued our trip as we all knew that Sharon would have wanted us to go on and flew on to Venice for 3 wonderful nights and days.  What an amazing place.  We took the boat to the Island of Murano that is famous for its exquisite blown glass where I managed to throw up my easel an paint from a bridge for a glorious 1.5 hours....some much needed art therapy.  We then traveled on to the island of Burano, famous for it's lace.  It is without a doubt the most colorful and wondrous city I visited and it' now on my bucket list to go a paint there for a week!

Our trip together ended in Venice, but Sharon and I had arranged to stay for another 9 days of travelling.   We had rented a car to drive through the Le Marches of Italy and were planning of painting and moseying through the vast countryside of this amazing part of Italy.  We were going to hook up with lifelong friends of Sharon's from Canada in Ravenna for this last part of the trip..It was something I had to face doing on my own and I was scared to death of having to drive from Venice to Ravenna by myself...Italians are famous for driving like bats out of hell and my lat experience of driving here wasn't what I would call good!  I rented a GPS and she became my friend as I only got lost about 10 times, ha!


Sharon's friends, Rosanna and Jeff Langer, ended up being amazing traveling companions.  They shared my obsession with maps and history and their unfettered joy of the trip was refreshing!  We could also share our deep sorrow at losing our friend and each night at dinner we filled a glass of wine for our unseen friend.


We spent the last 4 days of our trip in beautiful Orvieto where I finally found my heart again and was able to start painting again.  Day before yesterday I woke up and was me!...I felt like I had found an old friend and went outside at 7am and painted the view of the backside of the Duomo from our terrace.  Later we found our way to some hot springs near San Casciano di Bagno...after getting lost about 30 times where I did a little watercolor sketch.  2 in one day!!!
I was joined yesterday by a young woman,Kelly Medford who lives in Rome, to paint in Orvieto.  It was probably my best day as I woke up and finally emerged from the dark cloud off pain that has filed my heart the last few weeks.  She also went with us to return the rental car to Hertz to help translate as we had acquired a rather large crease AKA a puncture in the front of the car!  AHHH!   They didn't even say anything,  I guess it was considered normal wear and tear here!  YAY!


I 'met" Kelly on a FB group page called Plein Air Painters...what a wonderful tool the internet has become..


Below you will find images of the paintings I managed to do on this trip...I brought enough supplies to do 30, as you will see that didn't happen.  But I learned so many other things...The graciousness of strangers, not to take for granted even one day the people you love, patience and that I can be a really irritating PIA sometimes.  Ahhh humbling to find our at 62 that there are still lessons to learn.


Thank you, if you made it to the end of this...Ciao!

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L'isle sur la Sorgue, Provence

5/14/2014

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Our group of seven ladies arrived in beautiful Sorgue on Saturday in great anticipation of a shopping extravaganza in our beautiful little town.  Our private villa is in the center of the town and we can walk everywhere right out our door!  The Sunday market is famous and is the biggest one in Provence.  

While getting ready to go out into the fray one of our companions, Sharon, was acting strangely and we realized that she was suffering some kind of stroke.  We called the ambulance and she was sent to a hospital in Avignon where they found that she had a massive blood clot in her brain.  She was airlifted to another hospital in Marseille and they operated on her immediately.  We finally connected with her husband in Texas and he was able to fly in the next day.  

Only one of the ladies speaks French and it would have been impossible to navigate the French medical system without her on that first day and on successive days to try and locate her jewelry and wedding ring that dissapeared at the first hospital.  She was also able to translate when the doctors would call us with details before Mark could arrive.  Merci Leslie!!!

Marla, Sue and I have been staying at the hospital to help Mark work through all of this as the French doctors and staff spoke very little english.  Between the 4 of us we tried to ask important questions as we tried to understand everrything.  

Thank goodness Mark and Sharon have a medi jet insurance policy and the doctors finally allowed him to arrange to have her flown home on Thursday.

This has been a very sad and trying week as we all come to grips that our loving friend has massive brain damage and has been in a stage 3 coma, the worst number possible, and will never be the same.  Her wonderful husband is now having to come to grips that he may have to "pull the plug" on his love.  At least he will have family and her sister to be with him if that is the case once he gets her "home".

This has been such a journey of love and support and life's sometimes painful lessons of this life we lead on this earth we share.  I'm thankful that our group of lifetime friends that gathered together, (from all over the country)for this trip have had each other for support and for the love that we all have for each other.

I am facing
Needless to say I have not been painting, but have hopes of finding some art therapy soon...Love to you all and those that believe in something please keep Sharon and Mark in your prayers.

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FINALLY a day without rain!

5/11/2014

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6 days into our adventure after nonstop Parisien rain we are in sunny Provence!...but it was raining this morning AGAIN!  Just a light consant sprinkle, not enough to keep us from shopping :)     but enought to make it hard to set up an easel.  Our beautiful villa smack in the center of beautiful L'isle sur la Sorgue is in a walled in privet park setting (just for us!) with a beautiful pool.    The sun finally appeared and I painted this lovely little garden hous that is next to the pool...while I drank the leftover wine from lunch.  Fabulous!!  Hoping tomorrow is another sun filled day

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My eyes flapped open to Paris

5/6/2014

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I'm in Paris with 6 fabulous girlfriends  from my Renaissance Festival years...32 years of fun and frivolity with a sprinkle of business mixed in!    We landed yesterday morning after a long all night flight.  
After finding our beautiful apartment and getting settled in we walked the streets of the Latin quarter to stay awake and adjust to the 8 hour time difference.   
What fun getting thoroughly lost in its' winding streets we stopped for our 1st, (of what will surely be many), glasses of wine a a plate of pate and cheeses...divine!  We meandered through the beautiful Jardin de Luxembourg where I found the spot I painted at this morning.  
Last night we gathered a picnic of sandwiches on baguettes and a couple of bottles of wine from our neighborhood grocer and journeyed via bus to the Seine to feast our eyes on the beautiful river as the sun set and the many lights started to glow into the waters as night time descended.  It was lovely and made complete by a few handsome, young derelicts wanting to party with the old cougars that just got into "town"....we made our "excuses" and toddled home.  We must have walked for miles yesterday and every part of my body ached as we all hit the pillows.
My eyes flapped open at 6:30 am...I packed up my art backpack and headed out IN THE RAIN for the gardens and parked under a tree to paint my first "masterpiece" of the journey.  I felt a part of this amazing city...not dressed up with my painting togs on and my hair in a braid with a mug of hot coffee to sip on as I made my way to my idea of the start of a perfect day as my friends slumbered on in our cozy apartment.
Stay tuned...there will be more to come as it is only the beginning of this journey.
Adieu 
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    Marianna

    Artist, Wife, Mother, Oma, Traveler and Mountain Dweller in Search of the Meaning of Life...My Version of it Anyway!

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