Sono tornata a Firenze

I have successfully obtained by student visa (not without some difficulty from the New York Consulate, mind you) and have returned to Florence. Thanks be to God. Just thought I should briefly update my readers on my status.  I have just days ago moved into my friend's apartment, here is  our view of the Cathedral out of our living room window (it looks much closer and larger in real life):

Still getting settled back in, please pray for me that the process of obtaining my Permesso di Soggiorno goes smoothly and that God gives me the grace to focus and apply myself so I get the most out of this opportunity.

Sometime I need to write more in-depth about the way that God brought me here, but for now at least here's a brief update.

Brief update and a study of Zurbaran.

I'm currently writing from the Syracuse bus terminal on my way down to NYC. I had to come back to New York to take care of my student visa. My appointment with the Italian Consulate is tomorrow so please say a prayer that it all goes smoothly!

Here I'm posting a paint study (oil) of a Zurbaran I did as I was working to build up my portfolio for my application for the course in Italy in Sacred Art and Craft I'm enrolled in. Here is where I drew it in monochromatically (sorry that the photo is a bit blurry):

And here is the finished painting:

I basically just tried to copy what I saw. I really really admire Zurbaran's work and I believe that by copying some of his paintings I'll come to a better understanding of his style and the richness of the content of his works and hopefully apply that "absorbed" knowledge to my own original work. If I come across the painting I copied online maybe I'll post that too.