Rain,rain, rain, Collage!

After 2 days of rain (which I ain't going out in to paint in), I'm in the mood for trying out the collage landscape. Made glue from flour and water, that still works like magic.

Oak in the garden

Looking towards the house, with lovely big oak trees on the top bank. It's so cold and wet...I have my flask of hot chocolate with me now. Paper is so damp!

Monterongriffoli walk

A long walk today and just one painting at lunch.

Quickly, before it rains again...

Such short hours in which to paint, between the rain and before it gets too cold, I managed just two today after the Christmas break behind the capanna looking towards the olives.

Cold and overcast Tuscan hills

Winter olive groves

It's very cold today, the paper doesn't dry...I'm at the limits of this medium...give me some oils or acrylic and I'll have to work with that.

The Valley

So it's pretty cold at the moment, but the light is good today and the winter colours are quite interesting..lots of greys, purples and muted browns.

Olivegrove at Poggio Boldrini

Last night we had snow, about half an inch, so everything was white at last, a great change to the landscape...within 3 hours most of it had melted though, so just a couple of white paintings.
A little postcard for Martin.

Olive groves and Tuscan hills

Experimenting with very bold washes wax on top of the first layer. All todays paintings are here.

Olive washes

Today is all loose and watery...but is it getting too cold to paint? I thought not until my paint froze on my palette (we're talking watercolours here!) and ice crystals formed on my paper. I cannot go on like this..now I need another medium! Ahh or perhaps hot water??

Trees dot the landscape

A few small sketches today, I really, really like the first one. The colours flow into each other and there is a good balance of black to white. I usually put too much black in at the end and it becomes a bit heavy and dark, but this one I like. Painting from today are here.

Enorme Nube - huge cloud

Big clouds today, painting on a hillside near Torrenieri. I believe you're supposed to keep the sky simple if you have a busy land or vica versa...I did the land first though, then this enourmous explosion- like cloud emerged over the hill andcouldn't resist having a go at it. All of todays paintings are here

Reflections on Vincents olive trees

A couple of Vincent Van Gogh's olive grove paintings are worth looking at again firstly because olive trees are not the easiest thing to paint or draw. I struggle with varying approaches - to outline the shapes seems to be my favourite approach, but Van Gogh puts a lot of detail and strong colour into his. It might have been in summer when he painted his olive groves as the ground looks parched.

Olive trees dancing

I'm sure these olive trees must have personalities..I'm working out how to paint them as you can see from these two very different styles from today.

No.2 SOLD

A sky worth painting

Great skys today, some white vapour trails across blue so my mind was on practicing this more than anything else. Had some difficulties with a new rough paper also today, which I've decided I don't like afterall. Better sticking to the hot pressed at the moment.

Crisp clear autumn day

There are many hunters out in the valleys at this time of the year, shooting whatever wildlife they can find it seems...which kinds of puts me off rambling away from the main tracks without wearing a dayglow hat or coat. (Just in case they fancy taking a shot). Today however I walked across the shrubby hillside to a view down the valley. I could see truffle hunters with dogs at the bottom of the hillside, but managed to get a nice composition I was happy with.
All painting from today are here.

Morning walk

More mist, darker trees, less sun, less shadows, less strong colour.

4 weeks into trip - looking back

So I've been out here in the Tuscany hills for about 4 weeks now, it's been fairly warm and like stepping back into early autumn just in time to escape another cold, wet winter in England...
I've indulged myself with painting in sketchbooks mostly for the last 4 weeks as a 'warm up' and have spent most days painting apart from when serious distractions prohibited good painting vibes. The entire catalogue of sketches day to day is here > Tuscany watercolours if anyone wants to see warts and all progress (or not) I had a very sticky patch after week one..but things are picking up again I hope.


Also I just found some lovely paintings by Robin Purcell, an American watercolor artist. Very interesting style and great use of colour, they do look very modern.

What happened today?

Whatever happened today I don't know, maybe it was the good weather, vibes, eye and mind all in the right place, but it produced some satisfying paintings. In the third image below I was particularly pleased with the clouds. 2nd painting the brambles and rosehips worked with the hills in the background using wax as a resist to keep the white. All pictures from today are here.


No.2 SOLD

Walking towards Chiusure

Quick sketches in a tiny sketchbook today, the temmperature has really started to drop. Mist literally rolled over the fields today, I just had to stand and look. Here are all the sketches from today. Here

Hills and trees

Something I miss about the landscapes here are the hedgerows and stonewalls between nearly every field in Britain. This gives quite a bit of structure to a painting, so in this one I found the trees in the valleys made a nice substitute. I've started to use wax as a resist over colour as well as to retain the white paper. I've never actually used the gum watercolourists usually use for this purpose, and wax can be moved around as quickly as a brush without me having to wait for it to dry. I haven't got the time to wait around!

Volcano in the distance

Started to notice a slight change in the weather, more clouds appearing making the sky more interesting whereas before it was pretty clear all day. Nicemist in the mornings too combined with the distant hills are challenging to paint also.

Confusing hill and valleys

Sometimes there's just too much to paint, and I found that out today...too much detail doesn't make for a good picture!

Olive trees

Playing with the colours and shapes of the olive tree. They are a peculiar colour of grey, green, turquoise, blue.

Trees in the landscape

This is a nice balance of colour and shape in this sketch. I'm particularly keen on this aspect ratio too for my landscapes.