Collage can be scary

A cage is a cage - gouache & collage on Khadi cotton rag
25 x 30 cm

This painting was always intended to be collaged. It's the fourth in a series. Then I got to the point where I thought, I really like the dove. Am I going to ruin it with the fan tail? Thank goodness for Scotch Magic Tape - in the short term it will allow me to change my mind.

Tuscan Farm in Gouache

My Nonna has a farm in Toscana
Gouache

Dream Car - Fiat 500 watercolour sketch

La Bianca - pen & watercolour

I've been wondering how I am going to get to Provence for my two week painting holiday this month. Anyone who has tried to plan a train journey from Tuscany to Avignon, France will have a fair idea of the problems. Of course I could drive, if I wasn't absolutely terrified of the Italian Autostrada and if our old Mitsibishi would make it.

Anyway, since I first laid eyes on the revamped Fiat 500 or cinquecento, as she's called here in Italy, I've been in love. Now La Bianca and I are an item.

Anyone who wants to follow us to Provence - not too closely, please - should follow the blog, Four Go Painting in Provence.

Sweet eh?

EDM 127, 128 - Skyscape, Doorway

I have sketched this view from the terrace before - in gouache
It's not far to walk!

One more sketch to catch up and then two to go after that to the end of May. I haven't made it yet but I'd give you odds on that I will.

P.S. I forgot one!

EDM #125 - Draw a Bird

It's taken a while but the collared doves are now happily at home in our garden, competing with the sparrows and pigeons for the food and bath. This one sits peering into the bedroom at me while I peer back through my binoculars. They are so dainty, I love them.

Still dragging the chain with my Every Day in May Challenge. You can see everyone's drawings on the flickr group: http://flickr.com/groups/edmeverydayinmay2011

I need to catch up by the end of the month so I can post #131 on May 31 and pretend I kept up the discipline of painting every day.

EDM 121, 122, 123 Coins, Shade, Bell

Postcard for Charlene & EDM 120 Flashlight

postcard 6 x 4"
Val di Chio from Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany

This is the postcard I painted for Charlene Brown - 1150 Words - in Canada as part of our Sketchercise postcard exchange A Postcard from My Walk.


And of course, I have another EDiM sketch for you. Believe it or not I'm getting faster with these, which is one of the reasons the challenge is worth doing.

Tuscan Terrace watercolour plus EDM 118, 119

watercolour 19 x 20cm

Our Wednesday watercolour group met yesterday on an artist's terrace overlooking a garden olive grove. Delightful.

I've finally caught up with the EDiM Challenge ... until tomorrow.

My first thought for 'Draw some hair' was Dermott:

Where's Vidal Sassoon when you want him?

Painting the Tuscan Spring in Watercolour

Santa Lucia - 19 x 20 cm Moulin du Coq watercolour sketchbook

Our Wednesday afternoon painting group is venturing out now the beautiful spring weather has come to Castiglion Fiorentino. There were five of us out this Wednesday and it was such a lovely afternoon I think the group may soon start to expand.

I haven't had time to post much lately so here are a couple of other recent sketches:

Corner of the Piazza Maggiore - Bologna

We had a wonderful couple of days in Bologna to celebrate HWEM's birthday.

Road to Madonna del Bagno

The little sketch above was made near the town's recycling bins. There is beauty wherever you look.

A Postcard From My Walk

6" x 4" my watercolour postcard to Liz Steel in Australia

One of the great things for me about 2011 is a postcard exchange by our Sketchercise group. It's called A Postcard From My Walk. Each month I will paint a postcard during one of my walks and send it off to another Sketcherciser, by this time next year I will have received, in return, thirteen beautiful little original works of art from all over the world.

You can see the delightful postcard I've received from my Sydney friend, Liz Steel HERE on our official group blog.

6" x 4" my watercolour postcard to Martin Stankewitz in Germany

Both the above postcards have been a challenge in that they were painted outside here in Castiglion Fiorentino (Italy) in the winter. Roll on Spring!

None of us knows where our next postcard is coming from so that's a surprise to look forward to each month.

Many thanks to Katherine Tyrrell (Making a Mark) for creating the wonderful Sketchercise Group and to Ronell van Wyk (Africantapestry) for her dedication in getting this exchange up and running.

You can read about all the artists involved and see their postcards as they arrive HERE on A Postcard From My Walk.

A few of my favourite things - gouache

Gouache & Collage 29 x 29cm

Ducks, feathers, eggs, lavender, butterflies and the Tuscan landscape are some of my favourite things. The hidden favourite is the inspiration of British artist, Mary Fedden.

The idea for this painting has been stewing ever since I was sitting admiring a host of butterflies around a lavender bush and along came a duck - chomp!

Montecchio Vesponi Castle watercolour

Watercolour 20cm x 20cm

This is my second attempt at this view of Montecchio as seen from the garden of a beautiful agriturismo in the Val de Chio. Doesn't seemt to matter how I approach it, it still looks like a greeting card. Oh well, I guess that is the price one pays for living in Postcard Land.

A few more sketches

There's not a lot going right with my larger watercolours and monotypes lately so I thought I'd post a few more sketches made on my walks.

Madonna del Bagno

Watercolour sketches

Moleskine watercolour sketchbook

The weather is still very changeable but there were real patches of sun this morning so I headed out to sketch a tiny detail of the valley we overlook from via Dante.

My local painting group is getting together again on Wednesday afternoons. This time everyone is trying watercolours rather than oils. I've been carrying around a photo from a trip to Venice. It's a beautiful old building full of decaying detail. With limited light and time, I restricted myself to sketching one of the doors.

Moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

Biro Sketch

The weather is very changeable at present but on the good days spring is gorgeous here in Tuscany. This apple orchard was buzzing with bees whose hives were planted among the trees.

Biro sketch from my morning walk.

A few sketches

A picnic lunch beside a little canal.

On a shopping trip for C&F's new table.

View from a restaurant overlooking Lake Trasimeno

April has been a wonderful month in that we've had a lot of friends staying in town. Not much painting got done but just to prove I'm still around, here are a few sketches I managed at different locations.

Tuscan Landscape Gouache

Tuscan snow 13 x 12 cm
Gouache on Terraskin

For this gouache landscape I was drawn back to the samples of Terraskin paper Jeanette Jobson of Illustrated Life gave me to test. I really love this ground because while the gouache goes on looking very patchy it dries velvety smooth.

The inspiration for the painting was a photo I took on my morning walk after our first snow just before Christmas. Having joined Katherine Tyrrell's new project The Art of the Landscape I figured I had better get cracking and paint some landscapes, even if I'm finding the weather too miserable to get out and paint.

Happy New Year everybody. I've been very lazy over the festive season. I didn't even make any resolutions for 2010 except a promise to myself to FOCUS. It a challenge for me to stop dashing in all directions; trying every new craze; following every Pied Piper of the Palette and instead, to focus on a couple of main areas of artistic expression. Painting in gouache from a combination of life, photos and imagination is one area of focus, my printmaking is the other. Let's see if I can stay on track.

Gouache on Terraskin stone paper

Morning Snow - Gouache on Terraskin 19.5 x 13.5cm

At the beginning of December Jeanette Jobson who blogs on Illustrated Life started testing various media on a new ground called Terraskin which is made from a crushed mineral powder held together with a non-toxic resin - effectively paper out of stone. Since Jeanette only has one tube of gouache I volunteerd to test the Terraskin as a ground for gouache.

We woke to snow this morning so I dashed out to the garden to take some photos and used one as a reference for the little painting above. The 'paper' has a beautiful soft, smooth, almost velvety surface and is quite heavy. It cuts beautifully but wouldn't tear easily. I noticed in the tests I did on a scrap that it is quite easy to lift highlights from painted areas but one has to be careful because the paint takes longer to dry than on watercolour paper and colours will run into semi dry areas. The gouache dries to a lovely smooth bright finish on this paper. I imagine it would be great for reproduction.

I'm trying very hard not to fall in love with Terraskin because I don't imagine I'm going to find it in Italy in the near future. Many, many thanks, Jeanette for your generosity in sharing some samples.

Gouache sketch, plus...

Neighbours' Washing
Gouache on Clairefontaine brown kraft paper

If you visit on Sunday night you are probably going to be offered leftovers. That's what this post is ... leftovers from a few days of experimenting.

That's a new Clairefontaine sketchbook above - I like the colour but it is very thin and the paint is inclined to collect on the ridges of the paper.

Another experiment - Pigma Micron 005 pen with watercolour wash on rough CP paper. It's a corner of my favourite Piazza in Florence, where I'm going to stay next weekend. So you could call this one Practice.

Hydrangea - Monotype
- Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble pastels on Japanese Ho Sho paper

Monotype - oil paint on Fabriano white paper

So, who said I have too many art supplies?!

Collegiata di San Giuliano Print

Collograph Print in Raw Umber
image 14 x 21 cm on cream Grafia paper

This collograph was built up from shapes I cut out of textured Fabriano drawing paper and glued to my original sketch on a piece of mat board. The plate was then coated with several layers of acrylic medium and inked with oil based ink, wiped with talatan cloth and newsprint and run through the etching press.

Everything I've learned about collographs has been gleaned from artist/printmaker Belinda del Pesco. Belinda has generously posted a series of step-by-step demonstrations on collographs on her blog. She is a never-ending source of inspiration.