Plein Air Painting No.2 Sunlight, Shadows and Roofs of Tiglio Village

This is my second painting of today. Wandering down the narrow road into Tiglio I noticed the shaft of light on the front of one of the houses and all the rest of the buildings in shadow. By cropping this view tight into the houses, the painting becomes slightly abstracted, just shapes but it that one stroke of light that makes this picture.

Plein Air Painting No.1 The Pink House, Tiglio Village

Finally decent weather has arrived in Tuscany! Over the next 6 months I will be out in the open air painting with my French easel, getting sunburnt and attacked by a whole range of insects and occasionally watched by nosy people! These plein air paintings will produced using quick drying oil paints (Alkyds) with a minimum amount of paints and brushes to weight down, the easel already being over 6kg. The colours I use are Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Olive Green. Brushes, a couple of hog hair flats and a small rigger. Some works will be sketchy, some more finished but I do not want to spend more than 1 hour on each painting. I hope these blog posts will inspire people to work directly from nature, worth the effort leaving the convenience of a studio and dealing with changing light and challenging weather conditions and its fun!

This first painting is just before you head into Tiglio village. I liked the pink house, the trees and the shadow on the road.

Sketches of French Riviera and Western Liguria

Last week I was up on the Italian/French Riviera. Spring had finally arrived, T shirt weather and I managed to do some quick sketches!

Sketches of Tuscany and The Cote D’Azur, France

Daily Sketches, London, Christmas 2012

 Blustery Day on The Thames, Pen and Watercolour

 The Shard Backlit, Watercolour

 The Shard from Embankment, Pen and Watercolour

 The Shard from The City, Pencil and Watercolour

 Tower Bridge, Pencil and Watercolour

This Christmas I was in London getting inspiration, taking photographs and sketching in preparation for a charity exhibition in May. Over the coming weeks I will post further sketches and paintings that will be included in the show.

Daily Sketch No.202 Knarr Lane, Saddleworth, England

This little lane just a few minutes walk from my UK based studio takes the viewer into the sketch. The blustery sky adds some excitement to the sketch.

Daily Sketch No.201 Roadworks, Manchester, England

Manchester, a thriving busy city is full of sketching potential. Even a main junction with roadworks can be interesting especially with the contemporary building of Urbis in the background.