In April I visited Verona, a city in the northern Veneto region of Italy, known as the setting of Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ As I wandered around the old city, I crossed the Adige River at the Castelvecchio and came upon this scene of a river walk and park filled with strollers and their dogs, shaded by umbrella trees and tall cedars. I took the shot below, later sketching it in a small travel sketchbook. The next month, I started taking a pastel class at my local art center and chose this view for the landscape exercise. Below are two pictures of the work in progress which has taken three studio sessions of 2 1/2 hours each. I expect to finish this painting in the next two classes. The work is 22 x 17 inches on sanded pastel paper. I am using starter sets of Faber Castell and Rembrandt soft pastels. For more information about pastels, see my previous post.