Volterra, Tuscany, Italy

Friday, 4rd October, Volterra, Tuscany - centre for alabaster products - we saw many tiny workshops with crafts-persons busy sculpting and scraping away. We had a free day (no more guided tours). Our last lunch - this time at Osteria la Paca near Porta a Selci looking up the Via Don Mizoni. As usual in Mediterranean countries it wasn't long before someone parked a car in a "no parking" zone completely blocking my view.... no problem, I stood up and finished the drawing from the middle of the road. We stayed 4 nights in Volterra which was my second favourite place in Tuscany - so bellisimo! Wouldn't mind being locked in at this town and being at 1700 feet above sea level I might be able to cope with Italian temperatures. It's even higher than our little home village high above Sheffield.

Siena, Tuscany, Italy

Thursday, 3rd October, Siena, Tuscany. After a hard morning's guided tour we found the Ristorante San Desiderio for lunch at a shaded table in the open air - and a quick sketch of the Belltower to the Duomo.

Piazza Cisterna, San Gimignano, Tuscany

San Gimignano - I think this was my favourite place of many extremely bellisimo places in beautiful Tuscany. Wednesday 2 October, I was sitting on top of the cistern which I think was built originally to store water to resist those sieges the pesky Florentinians were pretty good at.

Italy, Firenze, Ponte Vecchio

Tuesday afternoon 1 October - Florence. Life was too short to join the queues for the Uffizi Gallery so, instead, I sketched the Ponte Vecchio from the upstream side. That's me in the top photo drawing the bridge in pen. It was so hot and sunny I painted the scene in the shade of the arches supporting the Uffizi. I didn't have my stool so I had to kneel on the pavement (see bottom photo). My wife was on camera again - she hates long queues as well!

Palazzo Veccio, Florence, Italy

Tuesday morning 1 October. Florence - Palazzo Veccio (the Town Hall). Me and my cappuccino outside the Birreria restaurant. There were quite a lot of tourists in this beautiful Piazza (della Signoria). That's David to the left of the main door opening

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Italy, Tuscany, Pisa

Tuscany again - Sunday afternoon 29 September - Pisa. Had to paint this one sitting on a stone post surrounded by people being photographed "holding up" the leaning tower. We had flown into Pisa airport the previous day (see the plane to the right of the tower) and had spent the night in Florence before being driven back to Pisa via Lucca. 

Tuscany - Lucca

Here it is - my dream come true - I'm in Tuscany! Sunday 29 September - Piazza San Michele, Lucca. Torrential rain all morning so I painted this one from under cover outside a nice little café. I'm going to have to re-visit this picturesque town..... one day! It did get better.

More Pastels

Heeley Art Club meeting 24 September again. I was doodling and dreaming of my first visit to Tuscany on 28 September. First image is my idea of a Tuscan landscape. Second image is my idea of Siena Cathedral - as it turned out my first sight of it (as we passed the Basilica di san Domenico) was remarkably similar - I should have added a dome!

Pastel paintings

Heeley Art Club Sheffield meeting Tuesday evening 24 September. The theme for the meeting was working outside your comfort zone - using a media you don't normally use - pastels in my case!

More Boats

2 more boats somewhere in the English Channel

Spinnaker at Lizard Point - English Channel

Spinnaker at Lizard Point - English Channel. Another scanned copy of one of my paintings from the early 90's

St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Been scanning my old boat paintings. This was from my first (and last) sailing adventure - from Falmouth to the Scilly Islands via Penzance in 1992. It's our good ship Jasper parked in St Mary's Harbour with a coke can gently drifting by.

3 spider webs

I was about to clean the window to our dining room on this bright sunlit autumn morn when I saw this structure of 3 overlapping webs..... the windows will have to stay slightly smeared for a while! See the spider on the left hand web.

Waxwings card

....... and my flock of waxwings card

Waxwing series

waxwings series 002 - in watercolour with yellow berry

Waxwing series

My waxwings series 001 - with red berry

Another using the Auryn Ink app on my iPad -

tree at Longshaw Estate 3 miles from home in the middle of the Peak Park

On a very shaky train back from Scotland last Thursday. Half way between Glasgow and Lockerbie in the Lowther Hills near Moffat, I looked at the scene, closed my eyes to fix it, opened my iPad (and eyes) and painted this in my Auryn Ink app.

Autumn leaves in Dundee last Wednesday - using the Auryn app on my iPad - I like the watercolour effect.

Last Tuesday afternoon - the Debating Chamber at the Scottish Parliament Building. They were debating whether Scottish MP's should be paid if/when they're in prison (it must happen a lot for it to take up so much time in a Parliament!) What a modern building inside and out, I could spend a lifetime drawing this one - it's architectural poetry! It wasn't easy to draw that roof structure in less than an hour - can see why the construction ended up 3 years late and 10 times over budget. The building's (Spanish) architect Enric Miralles died in 2000 (at the so young age of 45) and 4 years before the building was completed.