Pastel Painting, The Tuscan Diva!

Soooooo, here she is The Tuscan Diva, 

The Tuscan Diva

Can you smell the wild thyme and cilantro? I must admit I'm a little in love with her! If you can have soulmates, then I think you can have soulplaces and mine is Tuscany, and as for divas, there is only one for me ...... Mrs C!

Growing up on the west coast of Scotland your chances of meeting a '' diva '' were few and far between, but I got lucky. Mrs C was the owner of a local chippy and ice cream parlour, being Italian she had a fascinating Italo– Scottish accent which she never lost, in fact it was always intensified by the fact that she spent the summers visiting her family in Italy. When I say diva, I don't mean she was always throwing hissy fits and slapped full of make up, no Mrs C with her olive skin, dark coiffed „big hair“ and big dark eyes was just the most exotic person I had ever seen. The Sunday church visit was always spiced up just awaiting her arrival; in she swished in a cloud of perfume, swathed in black (which I found extremely glamorous, but actually was due to the fact of her having hundreds of Italian relatives and as a result she was permanently in mourning), her clothing was immaculately cut, obviously not from M&S and oozed chic (we were worlds away from designer brands back then). From the top of her big hair, over her gold jewellery and stunning coats to the tips of her shiny patent shoes for me she just had '' it''!  Probably the clothing wasn't designer either, but it just had that Italian flair, exotic!!

Back then married women covered their heads in church, Mrs C in her black lace mantilla, wow! Her daughter and I were friends and the tales of her glorious summers spent in Italy fired up my yearning to visit. 

Mrs C, is responsible for awaking my love of fashion, wearing black, Italy and for making me realise that there was a huge wide world outside just waiting to be discovered! Grazie mille, Senora C!