EDM #131 - Draw a Spray Bottle

Last day of May. Last sketch of the EDiM Challenge. I can't say I'm not relieved. Trouble is there are still a few empty pages in this sketchbook. I should have done more double page spreads.

Now I'm free to dream about Provence. We have a special blog for our painting holiday - Four Go Painting in Provence. If you fancy a free virtual trip to the South of France at this perfect time of year you could subscribe to the Blog or follow us on Twitter - 4PP

EDM 121, 122, 123 Coins, Shade, Bell

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?

EDM 115,116,117 - Basket, Leaf, Bead

Every Day in May (EDiM) I have to draw something from the EDM list. It's now past the middle of May and I'm feeling like one does half way through a diet, thinking of reasons to give up.

It's not that I'm not getting something out of this exercise but, looking down the list of subjects I still have to go, I'm thinking of other things I should be sketching outside while the weather is beautiful. See what I mean, like being on a diet and thinking of reasons to give up.

Today's Wednesday afternoon watercolour group too, so I will get outside to paint.

You can see where everyone else is up to with the EDiM Challenge HERE. Some gorgeous, imaginative sketches.

EDM 112 - Draw Something Fresh

Fresh Peas from our garden

If one gets out of step with the EDiM Challenge as I just have, it's a struggle to catch up.

HWEM would be quick to point out that while he was sweating it out under the Umbrian sun helping establish a vegetable garden near Todi (see previous post), I was sitting in the shade with Dermott, sketching. Well I was sketching, Dermott was enjoying the change of scene.

Pigma Micron pen and watercolour in Strathmore Watercolour Journal

The farmer on the hillside below was cutting hay all day. The birds and I were delighted!

EDM 107 - Draw how you get your news

Radio Box - I love it!

I'd like to say I read the Italian papers at the bar in the morning but it wouldn't be true because I'm illiterate in this land. Thank goodness for the Internet, my iPod Touch and a great little App called Radio Box.

At any time of day I can tune in to Radio National or News Radio (Australia) or BBC Radio 4. As a former journalist I haven't kicked the habit of following breaking news - all night if necessary.

This is Day 7 of the Everyday in May Challenge.

EDiM Scissors

Got today's sketch finished by 11am now I can attend to pressing domestic matters - i.e. Ironing!

The great thing about the sketchbook I'm using for this challenge* is that I can remove the signature I'm working on for drawing and scanning and put it back into the book when it's finished. Neat! This sketch is the end of the first signature.

* A part of the Everyday in May challenge - drawing something every day in May.

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.

Taronga Zoo Sketches

Watercolour and ink 13.5 x 21 cms

How do you entertain your mother? Take her to the Zoo of course! That was what my darling daughter did while I was visiting her in Sydney and I can't think of a treat I've enjoyed more.

The main attraction was new zoo babies - an elephant and a gorilla.

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

Unfortunately the baby wouldn't stand still and looks more like an anteater in my sketch. You can see photos of the real baby HERE.

I love the giraffes. They did stand still.

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

I didn't think I'd ever be promoting a zoo because I've always found them such depressing places but Sydney is doing a marvellous job with its famous Taronga Zoo, located on prime real estate on the edge of Sydney Harbour. The new enclosures are beautiful and there are endless opportunities to get up close to the birds and animals. It was only the old man gorilla I couldn't look in the eye. Even a gilded cage is still a cage.

Goldfinch Watercolour Sketches

Goldfinchs - watercolour in cheap 15 x 21cm sketchbook

Sunflowers for art and birds

We seem to have more birds than ever visiting our Tuscan garden. I tried in vain to feed them during the winter but none showed interest in my plastic feeder of mixed seed. This spring HWEM planted some small sunflowers for me to paint and now they are going to seed I finally have birds feeding right outside my window. I am really excited about the beautiful goldfinches and am spending a considerable amount of time watching them through a tiny pair of binoculars that were a giveaway at the Stingers launch years ago.

My Nikon 18-55mm lens isn't any good for birds so when I do get a photo I still have to do a lot of guessing about colour and detail. I'm sketching the goldfinches from a combination of photo and life, hoping that I'll become so familiar with their form I will eventually be able to make quick sketches from life.

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.

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.

Bantam Rooster

Gouache on Clairefontaine Papier Kraft 90gms

Pentel Brush Pen on watercolour spatter

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

This is the little bantam rooster who lived a short but happy life at my favourite olive farm.

My darling daughter bought me the brush pen for Christmas and of course, since Roz Stendahl inspired my passion for a brush pen, it's not surprising that my first inspiration was to draw fowl, which is something Roz does so brilliantly.

Small House Big View - watercolour sketch

14x9 cm watercolour sketchbook from Zecchi

I took gouache rather than watercolours on my morning walk and then tried to use them as watercolour washes. I don't know what I was thinking. It was very frustrating trying to mix colours and then the paper in this new sketchbook stayed damp for a long time so when I came to add some detail with ink it ran everywhere. As a result I added a little transparent watercolour when I got home.

Lately I have become very interested in monotype prints using diluted oil paint. This iris print was the first large work which was produced in three stages. The first stage I used a japanese brush to paint the iris in black oil based ink. I pulled the print and loved it. Stage two I went back to the plexiglass plate and guided by the original sketch which I'd fixed under the plate I painted in the flower and leaves. I pulled the same print through the etching press again. Less certain about the result this time. Stage three I added the background. Horrible choice of palette. I should have thought a great deal more about this. End result - very disappointing.

I'm not going to give up on this idea. Next time I'll work backwards through the three stages .

Black Fig - watercolour

watercolour on HP paper

Finally the black figs are ripe. Black figs with Gorgonzola - YUM!

Sketching Trees

Pencil in cheap sketch book ( that's why you can see the ghost of Raspberries).

Expect to see a few trees here in the coming weeks. I've joined Vivien Blackburn's Tree Challenge on her blog, Painting, Prints & Stuff.

The Tree Challenge fits in rather nicely with my other current obsession, Sketchercise. I'm walking six mornings per week - about 4km. Still haven't worked out how to post the Sketchercise badge on my blog though - so I'm fit but stupid!

The quick sketch of the tree above (must ask Jean what it's called) is beside the pool where I did my first laps of the season (after walking 4km, so I'm extremely stupid!). Too exhausted to move I turned around and sketched another tree (must ask Jean what that's called too).

Lamy pen in cheap sketchbook

Lime trees - painted on my walk a couple of days ago.

I'm using a beautiful sketchbook made for me by Marta for these little watercolour sketches. Gorgeous HP watercolour paper. Thanks Marta!

Raspberries Graphite Sketch

2B mechanical pencil

Our raspberries are fruiting so I thought I should drop everything and make a quick sketch. I've decided drawing in graphite is a bit like golf - if you haven't done it for a while your body quickly loses its skill. This is my first graphite drawing for quite a while and if I'd realised I was going to get caught up in it I'd have worked on better paper instead of my 'cheap' sketchbook. I really do need to practice more leaves.

I've just had the luck and pleasure of meeting the delightful Margaret Saul, a wonderful botanic artist and teacher who has come to live in Tuscany. Margaret is planning a special program here next year. A wonderful opportunity!

Hiroshige in Rome

Museo del Corso Rome

With the warm weather, along with the swallows, friends flock to Tuscany. For the past few weeks I've been enjoying friends - neglecting art.

I met up with Helen and Anni in Rome on Friday and joy oh joy, discovered a fantastic Hiroshige exhibition. Months ago I started a sketchbook devoted to Hiroshige's nature prints, copying them in watercolour from the Internet, trying to learn the secrets of his composition and colour.

Watercolour after Hiroshige

I came face to face with an original print of these fishes along with two of his prints that inspired paintings by Van Gogh. Van Gogh's oils are in Amsterdam, apparently too fragile to move, but high tech reproductions are displayed alongside Hiroshige's prints Bridge in the Rain and Flowering Plum Tree. Was Van Gogh as dizzy with excitement as I when he saw these prints? I wouldn't be surprised. It really was almost too much to take in.

By the time I had peered at every one of the 200 prints, I was spinning out. So little time, so much to try to absorb and remember. There was also an excellent video of the traditional process of Japanese prints and a display of tools, blocks and pigments.

Most of this collection was donated to the Honolulu Academy of Arts by novelist James A. Michener. The catalogue was expensive and the quality of reproduction disappointing but it is enough to refresh my memory when I continue my studies of Hiroshige.

When the Rome exhibition ends on June 7 it moves to London. Not to be missed!

Rome was as fascinating and beautiful as ever and we stayed in a delightful little apartment in the old Ghetto just steps away from the ancient Portico D'Ottavia.

As usual I didn't find enough time for sketching.

May was a wonderful month. I met warm, enthusiastic and TOTALLY DELIGHTFUL blogging friend, Lin Fry - View from the Oak for lunch and a stroll around Orvieto. Sadly no time for painting but Lin was on a painting holiday so I imagine we will be enjoying her Italian watercolours for the rest of the year.

Then I had the joy of driving to the little Tuscan town of Monterchi with a favourite (and brilliant!) Australian artist, Deborah Russell to finally see Piero della Francesca's masterpiece fresco Madonna del Parto (Pregnant Madonna). Thanks Deb, it was Bliss!

Now it's time to get back to work.

Ronell's Sketchbook flies on to Casey

Detail of my contribution to Ronell's FP sketchbook.

Ronell's Flying Pictures sketchbook left me today for Casey in France. I'm thinking Rainbow Moments may well take the opportunity to check in with her creator while she's in France.

Above is a peek at what I have added to Ronell's book. Of course it's not the bit I had so much trouble with ;)

As usual I'm so sorry to let another of these beautiful books go, knowing it will never return but I know Casey is going to add something wonderful and we will all get to share the images on line.

Ronell's book rewrapped and ready to go.

I know most of you have seen how Ronell packaged her book, but it is so pretty I had to post it again.

London Sketches

Watercolour 17.5 x 24cm Canson sketch book

On a whim, last week, I brutally decided to leave HWEM at home with the dogs and accept my friend Jean's generous invitation to spend five days in London. Our base was, in my opinion, the sweetest address in town, within walking distance of my dream galleries, restaurants and art shops. Any of you who've visited Jean's blog will know she's a keen gardener here in Tuscany. In London, their courtyard boasts the only tree in the whole street. I sketched it (above) the morning I left. The watercolour was added later.

When I started making my 'Must See' list, I began with my blogging friend, Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark. Until now Katherine and I had never met face to face, so we exchanged a couple of candid photographs and arranged to meet outside the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly. Katherine had offered me an incredible choice of itineraries for our day and we settled on visiting the Summer Exhibition, preceded by coffee and conversation in the Friend's Room at the Royal Academy and followed by lunch at Fortnum & Mason's across the road. We were chatting like very old friends from the moment we met.

Katherine has described every smashing, wonderful moment of our day on her second blog Travels with a Sketchbook in ... HERE. You can also read about every morsel of the gorgeous lunch she treated me to, which I hoed into while she sketched.

Since Katherine has been my sketching inspiration and mentor since I met her through WetCanvas, it was impossible to concentrate on a sketch of my own while I had the opportunity to watch her technique. I'm hoping when she visits Tuscany the lessons will be resumed!

Since Katherine had already seen the Summer Exhibition, I couldn't have wished for a better guide. It was so exciting and stimulating to see such a feast of contemporary art in one place. There was also quite a lot of gentle prodding about directions I could take with my own painting.

Statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds at Burlington House home of the Royal Academy

While I waited for Katherine in the RA courtyard I sketched St. George's Horse. (To my shame I don't know the artist's name and to the Royal Academy's shame I can't find any reference to this beautiful work on their website. If anyone can help, please let me know so I can credit the sculptor). Thanks to Katherine this has now been corrected.

2B mechanical pencil - Canson sketch book

St George's Horse - fibreglass Michael Sandle RA

When I realised I wasn't going to finish my sketch before Katherine arrived, I took a couple of photos. At the time I didn't spot that other sketcher at work in the background.

View from the Portrait Restaurant
(I hoed in yet again instead of sketching!)

Our artist friend Jani joined us from Italy on Tuesday and became my companion for the rest of the London galleries. We were grateful for Katherine pointing us both to the BP Portrait Awards and the Portrait Restaurant atop the National Portrait Gallery.

In spite of an unplanned throat infection, I also managed to visit the Tait Britain (with it's wonderful Turner collection and room dedicated to his experiments with Colour & Line) and the National Gallery where I finally saw Turner's sublime Fighting Temeraire.

As well as a blissful visit to Waterstone's art book department with Katherine, I also hoed into two art shops - Cass Art (Charing Cross Rd), with a fantastic range and great prices and my old favourite, Green & Stone of Chelsea, where I couldn't resist a sheet of handmade Turner Blue watercolour paper.

I'm ashamed to say I returned with only two sketches. A lot of time was taken up eating fantastic food, culminating in Jean treating Jani and me to a delightful lunch at Mosimann's in Knightsbridge. Feeling a tad guilty about HWEM stuck at home with Snowy and Dermott, I did buy him a copy of Mosimann's latest recipe book. Some of you may put this down to self-interest since HWEM does most of the cooking and I, most of the eating!

So that was it - five days - three wonderful friends. Bliss!