tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55370632098071558772024-03-13T00:41:06.027-04:00Plein Air ItalyChronicling the experience
of painting and drawing
on site in ItalyEmulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-74384716896527298712017-07-20T03:15:00.000-04:002017-07-20T03:15:12.935-04:00Choice of Subject
Or, Why I Generally Avoid 19th
Century Subjects
Tempietto dell'Acquedotto del Nottolini, Afternoon
I admit, I have a conflict: I
generally avoid anything to do with the nineteenth century when I’m painting in
Italy, but my paintings are heavily influenced by the plein air painters of the
nineteenth century. A problem? First, to clarify: 1. The reason I avoid
nineteenth century subjects isEmulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-7022561249130597032017-07-08T10:04:00.000-04:002017-07-08T10:04:33.417-04:00Morning at the Acqua Paola
SUNLIGHT TWO WAYS
Heading up to the American Academy in
Rome earlier this week I noticed how brilliantly lit the Acqua Paola was on a
mid-summer morning, when at other times of the year it only gets glancing light
for a brief while. I came back the next day around 8:30am to watercolor it,
with my back to the sun and sitting in the shade. The new horizontal format
watercolor block I’d just Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-58765440008019245252017-06-26T08:49:00.000-04:002017-06-26T13:57:14.254-04:00What Are You Looking At?
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 Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-12962069036947224512017-06-05T15:33:00.001-04:002017-06-27T01:45:50.115-04:00Watercoloring Under the Influence II
Not Painting the Light
I always stress with students the
value of reserving the white of the paper in watercoloring. Once you’ve killed
the brightness of the paper, you never get it back. That being said, truly
bright moments in a great subject are rare, and precious. If the image has too
much paper showing through, then nothing is truly bright, because everything is
washed out. The Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-49411526280619470542017-04-19T15:33:00.001-04:002017-04-19T15:33:59.533-04:00Watercoloring Under the Influence
Porta San Donato, Lucca
Old Enough to Be Bold
Between one obligation and another,
not to mention unforeseen work distractions, I haven’t been outside working for
a while. What oil painting I’ve been doing has been in the studio. As the
weather has gotten lovely, and the distractions fade, I’ve been making up for
lost time. Watercolor pencils have allowed me to get some of my own work doneEmulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-62781531599531847712016-10-05T07:03:00.000-04:002016-10-05T07:19:43.768-04:00NO TIME TO LOSE...
Early Autumn Evening in Lucca
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Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-31824355216376024522016-08-26T17:32:00.002-04:002016-08-26T17:32:23.275-04:00Cecilia Metella and the Picturesque Landscape
From the Circus of Maxentius
Just off the via Appia, more or less
behind the tomb of Cecilia Metella, is the villa of the emperor Maxentius and
its enormous Circus. Open to the public—and free of charge—the Villa’s Circus
is an evocative place in and of itself, but perhaps the best place from which
to see Cecilia in a context that evokes the eighteenth century landscape we
know from Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-17931877424597819742016-07-30T13:22:00.000-04:002016-07-30T13:22:09.533-04:00Cecilia Metella and the via Appia
Looking north on the via Appia Anticain the afternoon
THE CLASSICAL LANDSCAPE IS A REAL PLACE
Spending two months this summer in
Rome just outside the Aurelianic walls afforded relatively easy access to both
those magical ancient roads leading into the city from the Porta S. Sebastiano
and Porta Latina, and the via Appia Antica which led out from the Porta S.
Sebastiano (so-called becauseEmulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-68536085004511633022016-06-29T13:26:00.001-04:002016-06-29T13:26:53.202-04:00Arch of Drusus
The Arch in Context
I went back to the Arch of Drusus
(so-called, but it’s hard to imagine it being later than the Aurelianic gate just
within which it’s situated) a couple of weekends ago to paint the same subject
I’d drawn (see my previous post). I worked in the morning, within about a two hour window of time.
With that constraint of Valenciennes’ you must decide what you can capture, and
Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-56165920520182736282016-06-17T13:02:00.000-04:002016-06-17T13:02:00.365-04:00Outside and Inside the Walls of Rome
Arco di Druso, via S. Sebastiano, morning
Finding Historic Plein Air Landscapes
in the Eternal City
As I said here a while
back, Rome has changed a lot since it became the capital of a unified Italy
in 1871. Which makes painting en plein air a challenge if you’re looking
for the landscape of Corot. This summer I find myself lodging just outside the
Porta Latina in a twentieth-century Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-40753780715336887702016-04-17T15:19:00.003-04:002016-04-17T15:19:53.470-04:00Working It Out En Plein Air
iPad sketching
A month or so ago I was in Florence
with my iPad Pro, and stopped in the Piazza Ss. Annunziata with a break in the
clouds and drizzle. I decided to sketch one of the fountains by Pietro Tacca
because:
It’s bizarre and amazing
I’m still learning how to use the
drawing apps
I’m interested in the video
capture aspect of the Procreate app to record the process of making a Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-79081146968471540442016-02-07T14:46:00.001-05:002016-02-07T14:47:08.009-05:00Camelia Show in Lucca
Botanical Painting at the Villa Bottini
As part of the annual celebration of the spectacular flowering of camellias in the region, the group Antiche Camelie della Lucchesia have curated a show of botanical painting at Lucca's graceful Villa Bottini, within the walls of the city:
http://www.comune.capannori.lu.it/node/16546
http://www.gonews.it/2016/02/01/Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-54894674663682832802015-09-14T08:32:00.000-04:002015-09-14T08:32:53.332-04:00L’Occhio di Lucca
Or, Light in the City
On September 14 every year the city
of Lucca celebrates its renowned relic, the Volto Santo, for
the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross; the big event is in fact the night
before, when the city is candlelit and a vast procession moves from San
Frediano to the Cathedral of S. Martino. The day before the procession this
year the city reenacted its ancient signaling Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-22472413889923511522015-07-21T09:14:00.000-04:002015-07-21T09:14:35.314-04:00Painting En Plein Air is Painting Out of Doors in a Short Window of Time
Period
Painted in one hour on the walls of Lucca, June 2015
It's wonderful to see the breadth of
interest in the idea of plein air painting, especially in America. It’s not
unallied to our penchant for know-how, figuring out how something is done,
because it is, in fact, a learnable and teachable discipline. The phrase "plein
air" has become so popular, in fact, that it has taken on a Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-57440003694072298322015-06-09T15:23:00.001-04:002015-06-17T19:29:42.165-04:00Nizza is Nice
Seeking the pre-Nineteenth-century
Landscape
watercolor and gouache on Arches grain fin watercolor block
I’m happily, if briefly, back in
Italy, and while here my wife and I made an excursion to Nice—or as the
Italians call it, Nizza. It was in fact once part of what we now call Italy, as
part of the Savoy dukedom; it was also the birthplace of Garibaldi, who went on
to effectively create Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-46983832388433062362015-01-01T12:42:00.000-05:002015-01-01T12:42:05.739-05:00What’s He Painting?
What He Sees.
oil on gessoed card, 18x36cm
If you paint en plein air anywhere in
Italy but the remote countryside, you will be the subject of conversation,
either directly or in passing. While painting on a winter’s afternoon along a
high-traffic path into one of the smallest gates in the city walls of Lucca, I
overheard this exchange between a mother and her young daughter:
M Look, Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-54271122940225192522014-11-03T13:38:00.001-05:002014-11-03T13:38:35.394-05:00Patron of Painters
sign on the via Roma, Buonconvento
From Buonconvento to Rome
in situ, outside Buonconvento
On October 18th I found
myself painting, without realizing it, on the feast of the patron saint of
painters, St. Luke; I was in Buonconvento visiting painter friends, and we had
an afternoon of painting en plein air outside of town on an estate in
the process of changing hands (historically, it Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-44733845298500613692014-08-13T16:39:00.000-04:002014-08-13T16:39:17.316-04:00Morning Light
Outside the Walls of Lucca
I have to admit a preference, partly
biorhythmic and partly aesthetic, for late afternoon light. Having to gear up
mentally for the focus that painting requires, I’m not a spontaneous morning
painter; but if I plan for it, there is something appealing about starting your
day off en plein air. I did it in Rome several years ago, catching (within an
Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-5602873543672509982014-07-18T15:59:00.000-04:002014-07-19T13:50:28.964-04:00SUNNY ROADS
Landscape Painting Show in Seravezza
Last evening my wife and I, along with our plein
air painter friends Maddine and Joe of Etruscan
Places, visited the show of 19th century landscape paintings in
Seravezza, above Forte dei Marmi:
http://www.terremedicee.it/eventi_detail.php?idEv=255
The place, first of all, was a happy find: a palazzo/villa
built by Cosimo I de’ Medici as an Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-50910406646856786462014-06-09T16:14:00.000-04:002014-06-09T16:15:37.063-04:00Under & Through the Walls
PIRANESIAN PASSAGES
Lucca’s walls make great subjects, whether in
summer or winter. Simple, prismatic forms, they provide poignant ruddy contrasts
to the green that crowns and surrounds them. Less attended to are the spaces
below/within. The walls were designed to resist artillery attack, but like all
defenses they also provided for counterattacks (sorties). Troops could slip out
in the Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-30825081581430956212014-05-30T14:54:00.000-04:002014-05-30T14:54:02.495-04:00Random Thoughts
Just back in Italy, I’ll be posting new works and
observations as they emerge, but in the meantime following are some random
thoughts and info.
Having spent the early winter painting sets for
Charpentier’s Acteón (Haymarket Opera company), which involved a
woodland setting inspired by Lazio, I was interested to see Corot’s studio
painting of Diana and Acteon at the Metropolitan Museum:
httpEmulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-35374501188728297702014-01-09T19:40:00.001-05:002014-06-09T16:16:34.076-04:00Winter Light
And Dark
Winter light has its own particular beauty in
Italy. Or, better, the shadows of winter there are particularly beautiful, long
and deep, and quickly changing, falling on complex surfaces of manmade stone,
shaped earth, and a landscape that balances Nature’s beauty with ours.
Capturing the light in fickle winter is different than under the long,
continuous sun of summer. On a late Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-15018418584996890092013-08-28T19:32:00.002-04:002014-06-09T16:16:14.985-04:00Outside the Walls of Lucca
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Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5537063209807155877.post-8059725366963288112013-07-02T15:51:00.001-04:002014-06-09T16:17:14.222-04:00Watercoloring Like it Was Oils
Saturation and Transparency
What often stops me and makes me choose a scene to
paint out of doors is usually a saturated, brilliantly lit scene combining
architecture and landscape. In Lucca the circuit of walls offers a wealth of
options, cyclical as the sun winds its way around the city over the course of
the day. From below or above, the walls, their balluardi (bastions), and
gates Emulatiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11773405982717176805noreply@blogger.com0