First Day of the Cinque Terre / Lake Como Art Trek with Niki Gulley and Scott Williams

10″ x 8″ pastel by Niki Gulley

Day 1, Monterosso: CINQUE TERRE / LAKE COMO ART TREK
Plein Air Painting and Photography Workshop with Niki Gulley and Scott Williams

Our first morning in the Cinque Terre, we ended up painting right at the courtyard of our hotel since it was raining and we had a perfect covered patio there. The colored buildings of Monterosso proved to be the ideal backdrop for this three-tiered Italian fountain.

In the afternoon, we visited a lovely winery in the terraced hills that put out an amazing spread of wines, cheeses, tomatoes and desserts. Later that afternoon, the sun even came out and gave us a rainbow, and we ended the day with another delicious Mediterranean meal.

If you’d like to join us in Cinque Terre / Lake Como for our next Plein Air Painting and Photography Workshop Sept. 12th-21st, please let me know. The workshop is already half full and a final registration deadline of Nov. 2nd is quickly approaching, so sign up soon! For more details, e-mail Niki Gulley or go to nikigulley.com/artreks.
Upcoming Art Treks
Venice, Italy – Carnivalé – Feb. 22-Mar. 1, 2014
Paris, France – June 19-27, 2014
 Provence, France – June 26 – July 4, 2014
Tuscany, Italy – Sept. 5-13, 2014

Cinque Terre and Lake Como, Italy – Sept. 12-21, 2014



Plein Air Painting / Photography Workshops
Led by Niki Gulley and Scott Williams
These workshops are filling up quickly, so we encourage you to register soon!

E-mail me at [email protected] for more information.
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To see more of my contemporary landscape paintings and plein air oil paintings, please visit my website at NikiGulley.com.

Deadline approaching for “Coloring Outside the Lines” Workshop

“Morning Textures II” Tuscany ©2012 Niki Gulley
12″ x 9″ oil

Day 6, morning location – Tuscany Art Trek
On the last morning of our Plein Air Painting and Photography Workshop, we headed into the nearby town and set up our easels to capture the beautiful morning light illuminating every crack and textured surface of the Renaissance architecture. The only tricky part was trying to find a location where we were out of the way of traffic, because no matter how narrow and quiet a street may seem, tiny Italian cars will eventually buzz by you. Once establishing our drawing and focal point, we had to paint quickly to capture the changing light and be out of the nearby trattorias way as they were gearing up for the noon rush. I loved how everyone’s paintings turned out! the resulting paintings were full of spontaneity and energy as we had no time to fuss or overwork our paintings, and merely reacted instinctively to the scene.
If you’d like to join us for next year’s Art Trek to Venice in February, Greece in May, Tuscany in September or Cinque Terre / Lake Como in September, please visit NikiGulley.com/Artreks for more information. Workshops fill up quickly, so please let us know if you are interested. Registration deadlines for some of the trips are less than a month away!

If you’d like to learn how to paint with more color and freedom, please join me for my upcoming workshop, “Coloring Outside the Lines,” in Fredericksburg, TX, Nov. 2-4. Registration deadline is Oct. 15th. For details, visit nikigulley.com/art-classes.

Niki Gulley helping one of her students with her painting on the last day of our Tuscany Art Trek.



If you have questions about the Art Treks workshops or are interested in purchasing any of my plein air paintings, please e-mail me at [email protected].