Terraia villa

Enjoying our villa in Terraia not far from Spoleto. It's a farm house attached to a huge mansion called Villa Pianciani which is extremely grand and used for weddings. Our villa has a pool which has come in handy to entertain the kids and for us to cool down after a long hot day.


The views are magnificent - overlooking plots of wheat and other grains. There is olive grove just near by. There are mountain ranges in the background.


The house itself is in picturesque brick and stone as is all dwellings this part of the world. It's pretty large and fits all 7 of us with no trouble at all.


Yesterday we drove to Norcia, famous for the cured meats, truffles and pecorino. Then a windy drive to Castellucio, a town perched high up the mountains. This is part of the Mount Sibillini Park. Lots of lovely wild flowers as we walk through mountain trails.

Tuscan delights

It's now time to sample some Tuscan delights with a stay near Siena. The estate we are staying at is a small farm with wheat and olive trees. This is the view from the terrace. Very typical Tuscany.


This is a shot of the interior of the Sienese Duomo. The famous Duomo looks gothic in parts and Romanesque in other parts. It took 500 years to get to the final state of incompletion. The decorations on the floor panels (marble galore) and paintings are Renaissance as they probably were commissioned later. The black and white strips are most distinctive.

Canals

The problem with painting Venice is that it is hugely built up and consists of buildings everywhere... and I'm not a big fan of drawing architecture.


Anyway I sat next to the canal near the hotel and did some sketching. It was early morning and the best time as many gondolas ply this route later and although picturesque, they ruffle the water surface and spoil the reflections. Some gondolas even have an extra musician on board and the strains of "O Sole Mio" can be heard all day!! This attempt doesn't even begin to pay homage to the beauties of the place. Oh well. At least I have 200 photos!

Venice

After 2 days of travelling we arrived in Milan. Stayed at a lovely hotel close to the railway station. Quick visit as we boarded the train to Venice the next day.



This is a quick sketch of the views onboard the train. It hurtles at 200kph speeds which makes it nearly impossible to photograph anything. The impressive Italian Alps are ever close by with amazing snow capped peaks. The land is fertile and grown with rows of corn, wheat and grapes.

Venice as ever, is beautiful in its decay. We got onto a vaporetto and to our apartment in San Marco. This is the view out of our windows.

I've always wanted to paint a roof top scene. Venice is so glorious but time here is so short that I'm taking tens of photos everyday. Last night we went to a performance by the Interpreti Venezia of Vivaldi's four seasons. Held at Chiesa San Vidal, it was outstanding musicianship at a glorious venue.

Splash!!

Our focus on water continues much to my delight.



Waves thundering towards the rocks, this is my version of a famous watercolour painting. I especially like the wet on wet for the waves - creates a blurred outline which depicts water so well. I also learnt how to splatter the painting so that it looks like drops of water. The white foam is obvious because I used such dark colours next to it.





Here is another of waves - Susie smoothed out the colours so that the change is not too obvious. I used that wax crayon to reserve the white foam and I like the way watercolour seeps between so that it's not an obvious demarcation. You also see this in this next one of a building in town.

More experiments

Watercolour is suiting me rather well as I find that I'm all for the quick but effective in painting. I often fall into the trap of putting lots of detail in and am reminded by Susie that picture making (composition, tonal value) can be so easily forgotten - especially for large paintings. No danger with watercolour - no painting larger than A4 works for me - so many opportunities to stuff up. And you can't do too many corrections as otherwise the paper simply falls apart.


In this cliff painting I used a wax crayon to put on the whites. However I remembered the crayon only after the first wash of pale blue so the waves crashing is not dramatic enough. Susie thinks I should crop the top off and frame it. Experiment with the bottom - gouache??


This scene is of a wharf in Kiama where part of it was underwater at high tide. My interest is of the water under the wharf. Does it look convincing?


Lastly we had to paint flowers today. Susie presented a mixed bunch. There was just a riot of colour and textures. This is just a small section of the bunch - using the border technique to tie the elements together. I do like this trick - could be used on many compositions. As I'm in the gestural school of painting (except when left brain gets in the way) my flowers have little details but they seem to work.

Market scene and painting water

Susie had impressed on us the need to do the darks so that the eye is drawn to look. Thus far I've not been too successful but I've succeeded at last!


This market scene was at the Orange Grove organic markets at Lilyfield. I was attracted to this display of root veges - it was so French chic.



We then had a class on painting water which I was very eager to learn. Wettish paint can be lifted with a dry brush but some paint is always left behind. Masking fluid leaves a very defined edge which is not beautiful. But a wax crayon repels water and the mark is quite natural.


Here I have used wax crayon to define the ripples. Also see my attempt to paint wet on wet in the background. Susie has told me on no uncertain terms that I'm not to paint the tree on the right as I need to leave some part of the painting for the viewer to decipher.