Painting in Montefalco

Having not done any watercolour painting for 14 months, it was time to go and give it another crack. So myself and another 11 like minded souls met up for the first time at Perugia airport. We met the tour organiser and our painting tutor for the week and were soon travelling to our hotel in the hilltop town of Montefalco.
Here are some of my photos from that week, together with my efforts of producing watercolour paintings from the inspirational scenes that abound in Umbria.

 Early morning at Stansted

 

In transit

 

On finals with Assisi in the distance

 

Montefalco houses

 

A classic Fiat 500

 

Every Italian door is different (no uPVC in sight)

 

Our tutor helps a budding artist capture the view

 

Perugia is full of character

 

Pink Vespa

 

Sagrantino grapes

 

The local vineyard in Montefalco

 

A typical hilltop scene

 

I must try painting this

 

Buttresses

 

Approaching sunset in Assisi

 

The Basilica di San Fransesco

 

Montefalco olive groves

 

Local transport

 

Glad I was sending postcards from Montefalco and not the B.... place

 

The hotel pool

 

Time to return home

 

Montefalco street

 

 Piazza Dante door

 

Fiat 500

 

On the hotel terrace

 

My first ever sketch

 

Montefalco landscape

 

I enjoyed my week in Italy and the weather, food, wine, views, and company were all good.

In other news, I see that Lewis Hamilton is leaving the McLaren F1 team at the end of the year, and will be joining the Mercedes team for 2013. So my suspicions mentioned in my post on the 8th of this month were correct.

The World T20 (WT20) cricket match tournament is underway in Sri Lanka. The England women won their first match yesterday when playing Pakistan. They are due to play India tomorrow and Australia on Monday.
I'll be keeping an eye on how it goes.

All the best

Peewit

Painting holiday

Last week I went on a painting holiday in Boscombe, Dorset. The weather was awful with rain every day. It must have been difficult for families who had chosen this week for their summer holidays as there were few opportunities to get on the beach.

However I did enjoy the painting tuition even though a lot of it was in the studio.

On the weekend of my arrival there was supposed to be an airshow but it was cancelled with the cloudbase touching the sea.
This naval assault ship was to be one of the only surviving bits of the display.

 

We were learning to use watercolour for landscapes in a loose style.
Here our tutor was doing a demo at Christchurch. Soon the rain got harder and we all packed up and went for a cup of tea. Our first outdoor painting attempt had been foiled.

 

Back in the studio

 

After a few wet days, we had a day off and I chose to attempt to walk to Sandbanks. It started off gloomy. That is the Isle of Wight in the distance.

 

Along the way I called in at the Russell-Cotes art gallery and museum. Free entry and well worth a visit.

 

The rain was getting harder but I decided to press on. Old Harry rocks on the horizon.

 

The lifegaurd did not have much to do with nobody on the beach. Later I turned back having failed to reach Sandbanks. It was very wet and windy by now. I got soaked on the way back. Silly idea of mine.

 

One of our painting locations.

 

Place Mill

 

Back in the studio our tutor demonstrated how to simplify the complex scene in the photo.

 

On our last day the rain stopped. This is Highcliffe Castle.

 

The sun actually came out giving a chance to photograph The Needles.

 

Early evening view towards Bournemouth.

 

My studio painting of Place Mill using a sketch I did in the rain.

 

My painting of Prawle Point (Devon) from a photo.

 

Studio exercises

 

I did enjoy the week despite the weather. Hopefully I learnt a lot.

Peewit