So many times I’ve been asked at shows if I have all 5 of the Cinque Terre villages available in the Mini Vacations prints series (available only at shows). “No, I’m sorry I don’t”, I’ve answered for the last 10 months, and with each progressing month it has become more painful to say.

In 2016, I painted the 3 middle villages as Mini’s. I have painted 2 interior village miniatures of Monterosso al Mare, but they aren’t particularly recognizable as anything but “Italian”. Then last February I painted an 11″ x 17″ of Riomaggiore. So I had painted the 5 villages but not all at the same size or with the same viewpoint.

(You know it’s coming…)

Until now!

What took me so long? I didn’t have the viewpoints for Monterosso or Riomaggiore that I had of the 3 completed paintings (all taken from the coastal path), so I let my purist nature (lol) set aside the idea of painting these towns from other vantage points. However, after several requests this summer, I revisited my photos. As a subject, Riomaggiore is very complex – many more of the cliffside houses compacted together than the other towns – so I didn’t know if I could properly capture it in a miniature painting. And ironically, Monterosso has the opposite problem – not enough of the charming colourful houses or dramatic setting of its sister villages.

After several hours of editing Monterosso and Riomaggiore photos, I finally settled on two sea views of Monterosso (the old part) and Riomaggiore that seem to combine well with the other 3 completed village paintings.

Here are the 2 new Mini’s and how all 5 look together:

#97 – A View of Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre – sold

#94 – Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre

A Mini Vacation in the Cinque Terre

In Studio; each 2.5″ x 3.5″ ink and watercolour

So happy that I can now answer “Yes, I do” to the question “Do you have all 5 of the villages?”!

(Check my online shop at Etsy to see originals and Limited Edition prints)