POINTS OF VIEW
LIVING IN ITALY and surrounded by
spectacular beauty, I don’t just plunk myself down anywhere and start painting.
I’m looking for a scene with some structure, that will translate into a
two-dimensional image with some kind of compositional logic that survives the
translation. Finding a good subject is half the battle in making a compelling
plein air. Execution is the other half.
On a hot June afternoon I put myself
among the tourists and hawkers around the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine to
watercolor the latter. The en ressaut columns on the north side were
just catching light, while the north façade remained in shade. I didn’t want
the clutter of modern tourism to show up in the scene, so I looked southeast to
catch the green of the Caelian Hill in the background, the side elevation of
the Arch, and just one en ressaut column. It’s so tempting to want to paint
everything in your field of vision, but cropping out inessentials is critical
to being able to focus on a few simple issues: the light on the Arch, the
texture of the weathered marble, the shadows and their values and hues. E
basta.
