Enjoy the process!

Statue of Nettuno, detail - watercolour on paper Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm

As I've finished teaching most workshops for this year, 

I finally have time to go through all the impressions and memories.

 I feel lucky to meet so many interesting and wonderful persons from different countries, 

sharing my passion in watercolour painting!

I really enjoy every single painting session, and I hope - I feel - most students do, as well.

The hard part is to decide how much theory I should teach 

- I'd really want to invite everybody to just enjoy the moment: 

the fluidity of the watercolours, the incredible colours that emerge from the the washes

 and some accidental happy surprises.

The nature of watercolour includes accepting also unplanned results!

Of course some basic knowledge is necessary - but then I think you should just...

Enjoy the process!

The painting above is an example of an unplanned painting, a happy coincidence?!

a sunset wash on paper 300 gsm

The background  wash started out as a demonstration of fluid painting 

during an inspiring sunset painting session in August. 

The result was similar to this one above.

 As usual, I didn't have time to finish it in any way, but as I liked the colours I kept it for another moment.

Some time ago it emerged amongst other washes and paintings,

 while I was watching photos of statues from Florence... and...

Suddenly this detail of the statue of Nettuno hit me -  a moment of inspiration 

- and the painting was done!

Yes, in this case I worked in a quite unusual way, 

since I adapted the painting to a previously painted background.

Fortunately there was light (white) in almost all the right spots, 

but not everthing worked pefectly well.

To get the three dimensional look, 

I had to adapt  the position of the figure to the background.

Compared to the real statue I also made some simplifications.

Did you notice which?!

 I added some structure, a hint of the wall behind, on the right part, and that's what I like less. 

Probably I should try to wash it away...

Anyway, I'm quite satisfied with this experiment, and think that maybe I could paint something else adapting these finishes and colours?

Visiting Giardino Corsini

This weekend I  visited the beautiful garden of  Palazzo Corsini al Prato in Florence. During the show Artigianato e Palazzo, many artisans and artist exposed there products and artworks in the garden and in  the three 'limonaia' - the greenhouses for the lemon trees in the winter.

My main interest was the guided tour to the garden by a historian and also learning about the more botanical  and practical aspects by Paolo, the gardener.

In the parterres there were beautiful scented peonies, artichokes, lavender and santolina 

- no close ups, sorry!

 

But I also enjoyed the beautiful portraits by Magali de Maistre , Sicilian 'cannoli' and much more!

I wasn't planning to show the photos, so I just took a few for my own records, but you can search 

'Palazzo Corsini al Prato' for more photos!

Wintercolors from my sketchbook!

It's Tuesday again, and I'm opening my sketchbook to show a few different works. They are all fast sketches  - just for the joy of capturing what inspires me at the moment. This is a 'Il Duomo' a detail of the Dome of Florence. Pencil and watercolors. Very basic and fast sketching, but yet, easily recognizable...

This page - actually a double page, as so often in my sketchbooks - is a quite big sized (approx. 60 x 35 cm) mixed media painting featuring mainly watercolors - of cours  - but also oil pastels and chalk pastels.

I called it 'Winterberries' because of the frosty colors... And I enjoyed the painting process a lot!

Well, this was surprisingly fun! A leftover piece of wrapping paper inspired me. I glued it to the sides of my large sketchbook, and then I painted and copied the design freely, with no preliminary drawing 

in monochromatic watercolor (Payne's Grey).