Painting the Ponte Rialto, Venice

Ponte Rialto, Venezia – watercolour & ink. 60cm x 40cm (For Sale)

Painting in Venice

The next set of paintings sees a trip to northern Italy, to the watery city of Venice. This is a wonderful city full of magic and wonder. There are no cars on the islands and all transport is done on either the vaporetti and gondolas or you can take a traghetto across the Grand Canal and of course you can travel along the canals by foot.

Rialto Bridge, Venice

The first painting, in the set, is the famous Ponte Rialto, which has stood since 1591. A popular attraction with visitors it spans the 48 metres of the Grand Canal and has shops built into the bridge. One of only four such bridges in the world today.

Watercolor on the Grand Canal

This picture uses three different view points, from the centre of the Grand Canal, looking directly at the bridge, and on either bank to achieve the flat perspective. The feeling of depth is created by over lapping the buildings and piers as well as diminishing object size with difference.

The painting makes use of aerial perspective and dark shadow to give added depth. The idea is to show how a completely flat painting can still exhibit three dimensions and create a visual puzzle for the viewer.

Prints, postcards and mugs are available to buy from my on-line shop.

Watercolour of Italian Castles

Niccone Valley Castles – Watercolour and ink 38 cm x 58 cm (Sold)

The Niccone Valley watercolor painting features the Umbrian and Tuscan castles that have stared out at each other for centuries. This trip takes you past the bar at Sorbello and below its castle, then across the fields and over the border into Umbria, passed Reschio Castle and on up  into the hills.

The area around the Castles and Altabella

Houses on the hill

The drive ends in the wooded clearing at the top of the hills where you come to the houses of Altabella, La Quercia with its monolithic sculpture and the villas of Pietra and Casa Piccolo with their beautiful views of the valley below.

Wooden Sculpture

The olive tree in the foreground is where Paul and Anne, who commissioned the painting, placed a plaque dedicated to Grace their dog.

The rays of the rising sun converge on the house at La Quercia, drawing the eye to where Paul and Anne spend their winters.

Colours of central Italy

The area is a luscious green, full of woodlands and trees, fields of sunflowers, olive groves and vineyards. Peeking out among the trees you can make out the occasional farm or villa in its distinctive yellow ocher or cream coloured walls.

I decided to paint the castles in the colours that represented their origins. Therefore, Sorbello’s Tuscan stone walls are in raw sienna and the Umbrian castle of Reschio is a rich burnt umber. The trees vary from a sap green foreground to a dark blue/green wooded background giving the painting a nice sense of depth. 🙂

 

 

 

The Wedding Gift

Citta di Castello South Wall  – Watercolour and ink 74cm x 32cm (Sold)

 

When Lucia and Leo decided to get married, Lucia’s sister Beatrice asked me to do them a painting of Citta di Castello. This I was delighted to do as I’d been teaching them English for the last two years and know the three very well.

Town wall

So we’d decided on the town and just needed the layout. This time I decided to paint Castello’s south wall, which features the impressive gateway, the Pinocoteca decorated by Versari and a half-hidden view of the bell tower and duomo.

Painting tall trees

The length of the wall is cloaked in trees so I chose to paint them in a similar way to Citerna and Nice. Raising them above the scene to give uninterrupted views of the town but keeping the verdant look.

As the painting was for a wedding I put a dawn sky in, with lovely and pinks and purple, the start of a new beginning etc. This spiritual undercurrent was completed with the “Angel fingers” sun rays peeping out through the cloud and covering the town.

Noteable buildings

Citta di Castello is flanked by hills with the outstanding Belvedere sanctuary on one side and the former Montessori, educational institute, Montesca on the other. The scene is completed with the bell towers that grace the skyline and the modern roundabout on the left.

Secret surprise

As it was for a special occasion the lovely couple’s initials “LB LF” were also inscribed as graffiti on one of the doors and the scoreboards on the Bocce ball court feature the date of their wedding “0206”.

The wedding itself was a wonderful event, the service was held at Canoscio and afterwards we retired to the hills above Sansepolcro for a wonderfully typical Italian reception. I was happy to have been asked to play a small part in their memorable day.  Tanti auguri tutti.

Watercolour of Umbertide Sul Tevere

Umbertide Sul Tevere  Watercolour and ink, 74cm x 46cm (For Sale)

Painting Umbertide

I wanted to paint this watercolour as I was invited, along with six other artists, to take part in the opening of a new exhibition space in Umbertide. I decided that it would be a good idea to paint a new piece of the town for the show.

Inauguration poster

The latest picture of Umbertide was meant as a sister painting to the large one of Citta di Castello

. Taken from a viewpoint of the northern entrance into the town centre, the scene looks across the River Tevere. In the foreground are the road and rail bridges, the old wall and the houses of Piazza San Francesco.

La Rocca

Rising out of this is the old Rocca tower and the strangely shaped Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Reggia to it’s left. Also visible is the bell tower in the main piazza and the curvey facade of Santa Croce, now a museum, which is famous for it’s Luca Signorelli fresco.

The mountains of Acuto and Corona dominate the background with Civitella Ranieri on the third hill. On the tobacco fields behind Umbertide the painting shows the Abbey of Monte Corona and one of the brightly coloured, orange warehouses that litter the landscape around the town.

My sky is normally influenced by the weather at the time of painting and we’ve had some stormy, dark days of late. However, rather than create a grey, somber scene I decided to show the way black, leaden clouds come across as pink and purple to me. Much more dramatic and cheery.

Duccio’s Tree

Duccio’s tree

The large tree to the right is a reference to Duccio, whose work I’ve been studying lately in reference to a project on the lost predella of Simone Martini’s picture of Beato Agostino Nouvello, in Siena. I love the way that he realised that there were two elements to depicting trees, the dark green shape of the tree and its lighter leaves.

Umbertide Sul Tevere conveys the feeling of a town situated in a large open plain surrounded by tall mountains and tree covered hills. While linked with the outside world by road, rail and river it is still a busy but tranquil place to live.

Painting Mount Subasio

Mount Subasio, Assisi and Spello
Watercolour and ink, 74cm x 37cm (For Sale)

It has been an idea of mine for quite a while to paint Mount Subasio with its sentinals, Assisi and Spello. These are both ancient towns and in the case of Assisi very famous as the birthplace of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.

Basilica San Francesco, Assisi

The painting is viewed as if travelling along the SS3 between Perugia and Foligno. Out of the distance the curvey shape of Subasio appears and as you approach, the distinctive features of San Francesco’s basilica come into view. It is an awesome sight to drive up to.

Follow the highway

Porta Consolare with olive trees

The bottom of the page represents the superstrada and if you look carefully as you drive along the foothills of Mount Subasio you’ll see the churches along the roadside. Spello at the other end is moulded around the slopes and has a number of ancient town gates. The most distinctive of these are the twin towered Porta Venere and the Porta Consolare, with olive trees growing on top of it.

The trees in the foreground represent the works of Piero Lorenzetti and Giotto, both worked in the area and have frescoes in the basilica. The palm trees are in the style of Pinturicchio who worked extensively in Spello and it is here you can see his paintings.

A Return to the Niccone Valley

The Niccone Valley – Watercolor and ink, 70cm x 32cm

The Niccone Valley stretches from the village of Niccone at one end to the Pierle and Lisciano Niccone Castles at the other. This lush green landscape has the border between Umbria and Tuscany weaving its way down the valley, with fortified points along the way that for centuries have kept guard over the territory.

Halfway along you have the walls of Reschio and Sorbello castles, both now hidden amongst the trees. You can, however, imagine the lords keeping the slopes clear of trees to maintain a constant view of their neighbour’s comings and goings.

The battlefield has now been given over to crops and grain, sunflowers, onion patches, olive groves and grapevines are everywhere. Each adds its own particular shade of green to the hillsides and the valley floor making for a picturesque place.

Red Green Intolerance in Tuscany

Montecucco Tuscany
Watercolour and ink, 35 cm x 70 cm (Sold)

Paul and myself spent New Year in Tuscany discussing the relative merits of being red/green intolerant. We both have a red green dietary deficiency where these two colours are concerned and it was fun to talk over our relative experiences together. Therefore this painting has several inconsistencies in his honour and serves as a celebration of all things colourfully alternative. Colour blindness isn’t something to worry about (unless you’re a pilot or electrician) but something to be celebrated and enjoyed. It’s just a different way of looking at the world. Or that’s my life long take on the issue. So this painting features a tree full of invisible, red berries, purple and pink clouds and an orange grassy hillside. All par for the course in the colour blind person’s daily routine. Who says we see the world through a mute palette?

Giotto’s Oak Tree

Paul is a tree surgeon, therefore it features many different styles of foliage and pays homage to the trees of Giotto and Gozzoli as found in their own representations of the landscape. What I loved most about this landscape was the gorgeous hill top villages scattered across the horizon. Castello Verdano, Amiata, Castelnuovo and Montenero are all clearly visible. Tuscany too, with its varied produce, fields of olive groves, orchards of fruit trees and endless vineyards. The landscape is a patchwork of crops.

Gozzoli’s Procession

The little farmhouse at Montecucco most definitely has a wonderful view, set in peaceful, luscious surroundings.  If any Renaissance artists found themselves in the area today I’m sure it hasn’t changed that much over the centuries. Check it out for yourself.

50 Shades of Tuscany

When it comes to painting Tuscany I’m presented with a dilemma. I’m more used to the verdant mountains of the Umbrian landscape as opposed to the bronzed hills of Tuscany. This means I’ve had to sit down and set out my palette with a little more thought than normal.

Montecuccio in colour

Tuscan hues

The Tuscan landscape is full of tones of orange, terracotta and of course it’s own ubiquitous burnt sienna. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its fair share of greenery.

The fields and hills around Montecucco are full of trees, bushes and scrub-land but there’s a little more formality to the Tuscan plan. The fields around the farmhouse have a regimented feel to them, a sort  of quilted comfort of olive groves, vineyards and orchards.

Gorge at Amiata

Earthy tones

There is a natural earthiness to the landscape, with the green of the various agricultural landmarks under pinned by the rich sienna soil. The painting features the bright luscious grasses in the foreground, freshly tilled fields and sap green wooded copses.

The colours also tip a nod to the Early Renaissance painters who walked the area, painting their subjects. There is the presence of the lapis blue commonly found in the skies of the grand masters, as are the ruby reds and florescent purples. Although these tend to be reserved for the garments of the religious figures depicted in the frescoes.

Drama at sunset

In this case the cool blue sky is enhanced with a dramatic sunset, when the Tuscan sky comes to life with a rainbow of colour. The horizon burns bright with fiery yellows, gorgeous oranges and pastel pinks, fringed with the purples and violets of nights on set.

The natural hues of the Tuscan hills is constantly accented by an array of brightly painted buildings. The greens and browns are highlighted with subtle shades of mustard in the villages, golden brown churches and yellowed palaces. There are dark, rusting farm out houses and strange distant towers, all adding splashes of intensity to the winter shades.

Montecucco Oak

Colourful Tuscany

Fifty shades of Tuscany is not without its stories and one look across the vista and you can see that this is a land that, if it spoke, could shock and arouse you. A walk down the winding lanes, over the ancient bridges and through the musty woods is all you need to feel its history. This is anything but grey.

Touring Tuscany

Over the New Year’s I had the pleasure of staying at a wonderful farmhouse in the shadow of Montecucco in Tuscany. It was a gorgeous old building with fabulous vistas of the surrounding countryside.

Castello di Velona

Tuscan Hills

The rolling Tuscan hills with the villages of Castelnuovo,  Amiata and Montenero, and a skyline dominated by the rebuilt ruins of Castello di Velona, now an exclusive spa resort.

The hillsides are full of typical Tuscan patterns, olive groves,  cyprus lined avenues that lead up to lovely old villas and being wine country there are  plenty of vineyards.

Wines of Tuscany

This, after all, is the land of  Montalcino and Chianti.  During the winter months the countryside is also patchwork of freshly ploughed, sienna fields, just waiting on the arrival of spring and the sowing of the crops.

The landscape around Montecucco is straight out of a Lorenzetti or Gozzoli fresco. Along the roadside it is full of tall, oddly shaped  trees, large formidable rock formations and neatly furrowed slopes.  All you needed to complete the picture was a parade of sixteenth century, Medici dukes on horseback.

Sunset over Montenero

Tuscan sunset

The weather, for the middle of winter, was also spectacular, clear sunny days, with breath taking sunsets. A collage of yellows, pinks, oranges and purples, or at least to me they were anyway. The sun as it set silhouetted perfectly the hillside scramble of buildings that make up Montenero. Vague outlines of the olive groves and little lights of the village buildings as darkness enveloped the landscape.

Cagli – A Picture in the Mountains

Cagli – Le Marche
Watercolour and ink, 50 cm x 25cm (Sold)

The painting of Cagli in Le Marche, Italy was always conceived as a sister picture to Cantiano some 10 km down the road. The two paintings are linked by similar colours and shapes but also the SS3 Superstrada, which passes between them.

1157 Map of Cagli

Cagli is situated in a wider, more luscious valley but with the same mountainous surroundings as Cantiano. It is a larger town as well, although the colours of the buildings are similar and both have rivers which skirt their borders.

The Old Tower – Cagli

The centre of Cagli is populated with some interesting buildings including the old defensive tower, the theater, several churches and a number of town gates. There is also a lovely old roman bridge that is still very much in use and sits on the ancient Via Flamminio, which was built to connect Rome with the Adriatic Sea.

Raffaello Sanzio – Madonna and the Goldinch

Inspiration for the style came from the trees of Raffaello Sanzio who was born nearby in Urbino and an old 12th century map of the town, which had some wonderful depictions of the streets back then. The pictures colours and shapes were a result of a wonderful day spent exploring the area and making notes of the countryside around. The layout gives a sense of the narrow streets, punctuated by interesting doorways, magnificent palazzi, broad piazzas and colourful facades.

There is a Google Map link below for Cagli for anyone interested in seeing more of this lovely town and for anyone interested in buying prints they are available from FineArtAmerica.