Paintings from Italy

As my month (!) in Italy wraps up, I figured I should post a few paintings from my time here in Sudtirol.  Neither of these are really my favorite paintings ever, but they were still fun to work on, and they show what its like over here.

This one is the view down the pedestrian street in Sterzing, which is a town near Ridnaun, where we had Olympic trials.  Every town here in Sudtirol has a German name and an Italian name, and sometimes they're really similar, and sometimes they're really different.  The Italian name for Sterzing is Vipiteno.  I have no idea where that comes from!
The buildings in Sterzing are so colorful and tall and the streets are narrow, and I decided that it warranted a slightly less realistic style of painting.  I worked on this one during Olympic trials--painting is a great way for me to calm my nerves and keep a good mental focus.

This painting of is the mountains here in Antholz.  I had an idea for this painting in my head, and it seemed really cool, but I'm not that happy with the outcome.  Its sort of boring.  But I can't be happy with every painting.  And it shows what the view out my window looks like!!