Early Autumn Evening in Lucca
I went out, getting a bit of a late
start, to paint around the south edge of the walls of Lucca in early October.
By the time I got to the subject, which I had seen brilliantly lit at this time of day
over the last couple of days, I really had only about an hour until I would
lose the sun. The sky was spectacular, the subject of the Baluardo (Bastion) di
S. Regolo appealing for its dense clusters of varied trees, with three isolated trees below
silhouetted against the walls. I started painting; then a rainbow arrived, and
I though, “Come on! A rainbow?” I mean, how much more beautiful could it get—although
painting a rainbow, unless you’re Rubens, can easily slip into kitsch. I
reserved the ground for the rainbow, but started by tackling the fugitive sky.
I managed to finish, more or less, in just an hour, on a roughly 25x45cm prepared
paper with a light siena/ochre ground. I won’t say more, the pictures tell a
better story. I’ll post the painting itself when it’s dry.
