Synopses & Reviews
All roads lead to Rome--and no one captures the journey in luminous watercolors quite as brillantly as Marlene McLoughlin. Leafing through Road to Rome is like relaxing on a slow train through Italy, with an artist at your side. By means of her watercolor sketchbooks, readers travel from Florence to Rome, and to the legendary hill towns of Arezzo, Siena, Montepulciano, Assisi, Todi, and Cortona, through breathtaking landscapes, unearthly light, and the rustic beauty of the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside. Exquisite watercolors, pen-and-ink sketches, and brief captions depict the land, the food, and the character of one of the most beautiful places on earth in all of its varied details--a shadowy, overgrown Renaissance villa, yellow fields of mustard, a dish of ripe lemons; the Tiber at dawn. Richly evocative, wonderfully inviting, and thoroughly charming. Road to Rome is both a traveler's and a dreamer's delight.
Review
-- San Francisco Focus, May 1995
San Francisco-based illustrator Marlene McLoughlin spent a year in Italy, painting scenes from Florence to Rome. Road to Rome, a collection of her watercolors, is a charming visual travel diary.
-- Communication Arts, July 1995
This lovely hardbound book is the perfect example of an illustrator's dream: to do a book on a subject you love and to have it published by someone other than yourself. Marlene McLoughlin is a San Francisco Bay Area illustrator, currently living in Rome. Her work has appeared in many books, but this is the first she has authored. Her evocative watercolor paintings and pen and ink drawings capture the romance and beauty of Italy. Ms. McLoughlin's illustations are accompanied by handwritten text, lyrically describing the colors and moods of her scenes. This well-designed book should get many an illustrator thinking.
-- Sun-Sentinel, June 1995
San Francisco Bay Area artist and illustrator Marlene McLoughlin takes us on a journey through Italy in watercolors. From Florence to Rome via the hill towns of Arezzo, Sienna, Montepulciano, Assisi, Todi and Cortona, the painter records in her illustrated journal such details as terra cotta buildings with doors of aquamarine; fields of mustard and stormy purple skies; pasta shop windows and street produce stands; yellow espresso cups, eccentric little chairs, tiles and decorative grillwork.
Review
Her evocative watercolor paintings and pen and ink drawings capture the romance and beauty of Italy. Communication Arts
About the Author
Marlene McLoughlin is a San Francisco Bay Area artist, illustrator, and muralist currently living in Rome. Her work has appeared in many books, including The Diary of Emily Dickenson. This is the first book she has authored.