next session

Tired eyes, that might be it for the day.

second session

These are all "sketches" on unstretched paper.  My preference is to stretch even 300gsm paper, but yesterday when I began these I decided that they were going to be fast and fun, playing on paper with brush and colour, rather than serious artworks.  

I remember someone saying "not every piece of art has to be a masterpiece".  I have taken that to heart, and want to treat things lightly for a while.  I think that the seriousness of the works for Legato took too much out of me, and the demands of the hot summer are enough without burdening myself with lofty goals right now.  

These works are all approximately 20x33cms, or 8x13 inches.   It is one sheet of Arches 300gsm hot press smooth paper cut into four.  I am using only one brush, my favourite Robert Simmons 14 round, which I have had ever since my first lesson with Nancy Tichborne.  I put my first wash on with my mop brush, (mainly because I had left my beloved hake brush upstairs in the hot studio) and then put that aside too. 

They are all shots from in or around my house and village, little cameos that caught my eye.  They could end up in frames, who knows? There's a long way to go with all of them.  The brightest one at this stage will end up being the darkest one when finished.  

Today I am grateful for an oscillating fan.

underway

Psyching myself back into it

 Getting glasses and glasses sorted

 First washes

Watch this space!

Today I am grateful for encouragement. 

where there's muck...

We have a pigeon problem here, but all deposits are cheerfully accepted as omens of good fortune.  My car was regularly being "dumped on", all in the name of luck.

In the extreme and unexpected snowfall earlier this year it was again dumped on, this time a roof avalanche, and was damaged to the tune of 2,500 euros - and not covered by insurance for this "act of God".  It wasn't my idea of good luck, so perhaps I have to start thinking that without the pigeon protection I might have lost the whole car, not just the top of it, or, worse still, been inside it at the time.

Today, however, while sheltering in some shade in the piazza, it was I who received the dumping of good luck. My excited Italian friend called others to look at the size of my coming fortune, snapped this shot, then posted the photograph on Facebook.  I looked up for flying elephants, or at least a little piglet...

(I should have been inside painting, not up in the piazza watching weddings!)

It's all onwards and upwards from here!

Today I am grateful for clean clothes. 

i'll be painting inside for next few days

Food? Check
Water? Hope so
Trees watered? No
Dogs inside? Yes
Paints? Yes
Paper? Plenty

Walking? Not likely!

Bananas! I have to go out to buy milk and bananas.


Today I am grateful for one metre thick stone walls. 

the weather

What would we do without the weather to talk about?  This arrived in my inbox yesterday, the weekend weather forecast:

Weekend bollente, ma da LUNEDI arriva NERONE ed infuoca Roma e il sud

loosely translated by me to mean: Boiling weekend, but on Monday Nerone arrives to set Rome and the south on fire...

Today I am grateful for an air conditioned car. 

this had to wait to be published

It's for a very special little girl who loves puddles  :-) 

Today I am grateful for skype video and blogs.