Florence

One of the best view of Florence is from Piazza Michelangelo. I’ve now painted several watercolour studies from the piazza which boasts stunning views of the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno. Last Sunday afternoon was hot and sunny in Florence which meant that the watercolour paint dried very quickly. This was in marked contrast to the last time I painted this view. It was a cold, wet February afternoon and the light was fading. Susan had to stand over me with an umbrella to keep the rain off the paper!

Watercolour

It was worth the effort though. From these studies, I was able to paint a large studio watercolour titled “Florence from Piazza Michelangelo” which has been one of my best selling limited edition prints of Italy. The sketchbook watercolour above was a pleasant change from the portraits I’ve been doing at the Charles Cecil Studio in Florence.

Charles Cecil

I’ve been attending one of their short courses in portraiture and I have to say, I’m loving it! It’s a two week course and it’;s immensely stimulating. Week one we have been doing charcoal drawings of the models. Week two is painting in oils. The method of study is “Sight size” which is a philosophy of seeing as well as being a drawing method. I use this method when I’m doing life drawing studies. I talk about this more in one of my other blog posts.