More Autumn Flowers

And spot the dragon fly.....!

Sunshine through the autumn-painted leaves

Sunday, in my garden.  Lovely colours and light.

Now Showing

In my garden: still lots of flourishing colour out there

Return to the Abruzzo

I was very lucky to be able to return to Atessa in Abruzzo last month and to stay once again in the Casa Pietro, where I enjoyed a week's painting course under the tutelage of the lovely Marco di Marinis, who showed me how to work with watercolours more effectively.
I now realise that I was using them like gouache, or poster colour, without really exploring their characteristic use as transparent washes.



Due to poor weather (a deluge which hid the lovely valley views) our first sessions were in Marco's Atessa studio and I used one of his photos of the trebocchi - gloriously Gormenghast-ish fishing platforms characteristic of the Chieti coastline. The photo is showing the painting greyer than it is in reality.

By the weekend the weather had improved, and we had a morning date with Marco at the San Pasquale monastery to start a painting en plein air. There was a lovely view of Atessa from the park across the road from the monastery, so we pitched the easels and got stuck in.

This is my version of it:

My third piece was a view of the hill across the house from Casa Pietra: it's a lovely view to enjoy while washing up at the sink in the kitchen.  The sun was so strong that it melted the glue of the masking tape into the paper!

It was a lovely time away and I learned a lot.  I saw some wonderful places while I was there and hope that I will be able to return one day to enjoy this lovely area again.

Happiness

“The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”-- William Morris