These trees leading up to the Fosso car park are like sculptures, the trunks have a camouflage effect and the Spring leaves dapple in the afternoon sunshine. Sadly, a few had to be chopped down due to a disease, l hope the disease does not spread to the rest of these beautiful trees.
I have always liked this reddy brown coloured house behind the Duomo. It is an unusual colour for this area. The views from the house must be fantastic. Today was cold and dull but the clouds moved for a few minutes, allowing the sun to shine on the foreground grass. Moments like these inspire any landscape painter!
Many houses cling to the hillsides around the whole of Northern Tuscany. This house above us sits next to a road but many can be very isolated. Some are lucky enough to have a track but some can only be accessed by a mule track so you can imagine years ago before roads were constructed, life was very hard and people had to survive on only the food they produced. Visiting another village in the next valley would have been like us now visiting another country!
Just come back from a nine course Easter meal at a local restaurant. Too full to move so did this sketch lying down on the sofa!
Another day of showers but
managed to do this sketch of our farmhouse before the rain. We are very
lucky to rent this house because it’s location is great - open views and
only a five minute drive down to Barga. It also gets the sun most of
the day so good for the veg plot! The house looks more French than
Tuscan with the pale blue shutters as nearly all shutters in Italy are
Green or Brown, not the most exciting colours.
The weather over the past few days has been changeable but this creates great images for a landscape painter. Just after strimming the terraces, the sky turned very dark. Grabbing my sketchpad, I quickly sketched this view looking from the house before the heavens opened. I also liked the vertical tall trees that cover the steep hillside with patches of green.
The attraction to sketch this view at this particular moment were the clouds above the hilltop village of Sommocolonia, just outside Barga. Standing at just over 700 metres above sea level, the village has magnificent views over the valley below. Very few people live permanently in Sommocolonia, there is no bar or shop like so many small villages in Italy but there is a peaceful atmosphere and in the heat of summer it’s good to stroll around and get some cool air.
