Ciao Belli to the CoR XX

Sadly the students on the City of Rome Course who have been with us for the last two months, finished on Thursday this week. They were great to have around and I had some wonderful conversations with them all. Many of them were incredibly helpful with my research too, so thank you CoR. I shall miss you! (Not least, as you were my main sock source...)

I did a quick scout around on the roof on Friday and this was all I could find..



There was also a dusty old pair of boxers but I think St Ant and I have to draw the line somewhere..

The School seems strangely empty now and suddenly too there is some pressure as one realises that we are two thirds through and there is just one month left to go. There is one advantage though to having fewer people around and that is that we can now comfortably put things in the fridges - so less chance of repeating the episode a month ago of the forgotten fish..

Already it is beginning to feel as though things are beginning to wind down. On Wednesday night it was the American Academy Open Studios opening, so a few of us went along..

This is the entrance with one of the studios behind. Incredibly flash...



They have a lot more artists there, nineteen to our eight and they also had Chuck Close and William Kentridge in residence..

It was a beautiful evening





And a beautiful setting high up on the Janiculum Hill with incredible views over the city. There were loads of people there and they seemed to have a never-ending source of refreshments



We enjoyed (quite a few glasses of) their Prosecco..
Thank you to Kevin for these images as I stupidly, didn't bring my camera out with me. I must say though, that having experienced an evening of such splendour - we all decided that we very much prefer everything that we are experiencing at the BSR, not only does it feel more real but it is actually a whole lot more fun ( I bet you have to be on your best behaviour all the time at the AAR..)

All this week again, has been spent hard at work in the studio, I love it...

Here's a couple of views of this week's activity..