View to the Lake and A Sneak Peek into the Book Printing Process

         

View to the Lake
12 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

September is right around the corner and I'm looking forward to 2 exciting opportunities coming up.

 First, I'll be heading off with 10 students to teach a painting workshop in Lake Garda in Northern Italy.  I've been to that location to teach several times before and I can't wait to revisit some of the beautiful scenes and the enchanting lake and share them with these new participants. I am also going to spend a couple of days beforehand on my own on Lake Como. The painting above is the view of a villa from right near where I'll be staying- it is idyllic.

I am also anticipating seeing my book, "Bella Italia, Italy Through the Eyes of an Artist" completed. Yesterday was an exciting day. I went to review color proofs on the press at the printers in Tennessee. It was fun to see what I've been working on for so long getting so close to becoming real.  The staff was great and gave me a tour of the entire plant so saw the whole operation from where the paper comes in to the set-up, printing, cutting, collating, sewing, glueing, covers added, packed to ship.

Here are some photo's to give you a peek behind the scenes.

Reviewing a press sheet- each one had 8 pages on one side and 8 on the other. The book is 120 pages, so had 7 1/2 of these to review

These are rolls of paper that come in via rail for each week's production.

The manager, Terry, standing next to a roll of paper so you can get an idea of how large they are.

Another sheet hot off the press

The book pages automatically get  hole punched and sewn together. See the spools of thread near the top.

By the end of the day, all pages were printed , ready to go on to the next stage in the process.

The book will be available in a few weeks, but can be pre-ordered now at Bella Italia