Have Dogs, Will Travel

Some Tuscan Rainbow Moments

2008-07-19T12:15:00.009Z

In Jean's Garden - Watercolour CP paper

These are my additions to Ronell's Flying Pictures Sketchbook. The book is now with Casey in France. Ronell's theme is Rainbow Moments so these are some that sprung to mind. Above, a corner of a friend's garden here in Tuscany. The Rainbow Moment is actually when that old bell calls us to lunch!

First Scarce Swallowtail on our lavender

Our lavender bloomed on the terrace for the first time this year and attracted our first Scarce Swallowtail butterfly. Apparently this butterfly is so named because it is scarce in the UK, not here in Tuscany.

My Summer Desk - Acrylic, pencil & Stabilo fine liners

We are each attaching our own choice of paper to the concertina sketchbooks and it can be a challenge to carry an image across two different grounds. I resorted to an acrylic undercoat to try to pull this one together.

You can see the entire contents of Ronell's sketchbook, get a preview peek at what Casey is adding and follow its journey on the Flying Pictures Project blog.

Vivien's Flying Pictures Sketchbook Update

2008-07-15T13:35:00.004Z

Cover ⓒ Vivien Blackburn

Vivien's Blackburn's Flying Pictures Sketchbook is now in Tuscany. It has become a daily treat for me to open out the ten beautiful concertina pages of original work by three artists - Vivien, Ronell van Wyk and Lindsay Olson.

You can see my post about Lindsay's stunning additions to the book HERE at the Flying Pictures Blog.

Scroll through the blog to find Vivien's and Ronell's earlier spreads. The artful journeys of all seven Flying Pictures Sketchbooks in this exchange are being constantly updated on the FP blog.

I have now started work on my addition to Vivien's book. It is a daunting task, as you can imagine.

Looking at a Red Onion

2008-07-13T16:22:00.004Z

The Gardener grew it, I painted it. He'll cook it, I'll eat it. Isn't life perfect?

Editor's Note: I actually meant to post this in Our Tuscan Garden. I should not be in charge of a blog!

An Onion on my Desk

2008-07-13T12:17:00.008Z

Watercolour & WC pencils - A4 scribble block

HWEM has started pulling the first onions from the garden. I want to do a proper watercolour but thought I had better catch one at least in a sketch before it loses its leaves. All the sketches I'm doing lately are on a cheap sketch pad I bought from the supermarket. It is so liberating! ( Note to Sharon - I've used some Perylene Maroon in this. Sharon has been painting onions as well.)

Watercolour & Pen - Val di Chio

Inspired by looking at some lovely loose pen and ink sketches in our Flying Pictures sketchbook exchange (see Casey and Ronell) I've started playing fast and loose with the local scenery. This is a detail from the view over the valley from our carpark.

Watercolour, Acrylic ink and pen

Acrylic inks I bought on special in London and not sure if I really needed!

Roman building - Pitt Artist Pens & ink

Two Hot Dogs suffering the Tuscan Summer

Sunflowers Seated

2008-07-10T11:19:00.003Z

Gel Pen & Pitt Artist Pens

Who was I thinking of? He made icons of both these objects.

I'm doing a lot of quick, loose sketches on scrap paper, trying to loosen up my style.

Ronell's Sketchbook flies on to Casey

2008-07-07T17:18:00.003Z

Detail of my contribution to Ronell's FP sketchbook.

Ronell's Flying Pictures sketchbook left me today for Casey in France. I'm thinking Rainbow Moments may well take the opportunity to check in with her creator while she's in France.

Above is a peek at what I have added to Ronell's book. Of course it's not the bit I had so much trouble with ;)

As usual I'm so sorry to let another of these beautiful books go, knowing it will never return but I know Casey is going to add something wonderful and we will all get to share the images on line.

Ronell's book rewrapped and ready to go.

I know most of you have seen how Ronell packaged her book, but it is so pretty I had to post it again.

Flying Pictures - Rainbow Moments

2008-07-01T16:08:00.002Z

Oil Pastel - ⓒ Lindsay Olson

I didn't think I'd ever be posting an oil pastel painting on this blog. I'm hopeless with oil pastels myself. They are, however, Lindsay's great love and forte and she has chosen them for her spread in Ronell's Flying Pictures sketchbook exchange called Rainbow Moments which is now with me in Tuscany.

Beautiful work Lindsay and a sublime mood you've created with the still, reflective water and the lovely island trees. A 'rainbow moment' indeed. I keep glancing at the picture, waiting for you to come paddling by in your canoe.

It's also a great delight to finally have some of Ronell's beautiful original watercolours . Ronell has created a gorgeous polished wax finish on her cover. There is also a special personal gift from Ronell to keep, which I won't reveal because it will spoil the surprise for the other Flyers.

Flying Sketchbook Cover ⓒ Ronell van Wyk

If you want to peek inside, you can see Ronell's pages HERE on her blog Africantapestry or at our Flying Pictures Blog, where the journeys of all seven books are being recorded.

Lindsay enclosed a secret First Aid Kit to assist with the anxiety that quickly follows the delight associated with receiving one of these beautiful books. Anxiety because one now has to come up with something to add to this beauty. I painted half a spread before I realised I was using the wrong size paper, so I started over ... and over... Don't hold your breath Casey, I may be a while!

London Sketches

2008-06-25T10:36:00.011Z

Watercolour 17.5 x 24cm Canson sketch book

On a whim, last week, I brutally decided to leave HWEM at home with the dogs and accept my friend Jean's generous invitation to spend five days in London. Our base was, in my opinion, the sweetest address in town, within walking distance of my dream galleries, restaurants and art shops. Any of you who've visited Jean's blog will know she's a keen gardener here in Tuscany. In London, their courtyard boasts the only tree in the whole street. I sketched it (above) the morning I left. The watercolour was added later.

When I started making my 'Must See' list, I began with my blogging friend, Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark. Until now Katherine and I had never met face to face, so we exchanged a couple of candid photographs and arranged to meet outside the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly. Katherine had offered me an incredible choice of itineraries for our day and we settled on visiting the Summer Exhibition, preceded by coffee and conversation in the Friend's Room at the Royal Academy and followed by lunch at Fortnum & Mason's across the road. We were chatting like very old friends from the moment we met.

Katherine has described every smashing, wonderful moment of our day on her second blog Travels with a Sketchbook in ... HERE. You can also read about every morsel of the gorgeous lunch she treated me to, which I hoed into while she sketched.

Since Katherine has been my sketching inspiration and mentor since I met her through WetCanvas, it was impossible to concentrate on a sketch of my own while I had the opportunity to watch her technique. I'm hoping when she visits Tuscany the lessons will be resumed!

Since Katherine had already seen the Summer Exhibition, I couldn't have wished for a better guide. It was so exciting and stimulating to see such a feast of contemporary art in one place. There was also quite a lot of gentle prodding about directions I could take with my own painting.

Statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds at Burlington House home of the Royal Academy

While I waited for Katherine in the RA courtyard I sketched St. George's Horse. (To my shame I don't know the artist's name and to the Royal Academy's shame I can't find any reference to this beautiful work on their website. If anyone can help, please let me know so I can credit the sculptor). Thanks to Katherine this has now been corrected.

2B mechanical pencil - Canson sketch book

St George's Horse - fibreglass Michael Sandle RA

When I realised I wasn't going to finish my sketch before Katherine arrived, I took a couple of photos. At the time I didn't spot that other sketcher at work in the background.

View from the Portrait Restaurant
(I hoed in yet again instead of sketching!)

Our artist friend Jani joined us from Italy on Tuesday and became my companion for the rest of the London galleries. We were grateful for Katherine pointing us both to the BP Portrait Awards and the Portrait Restaurant atop the National Portrait Gallery.

In spite of an unplanned throat infection, I also managed to visit the Tait Britain (with it's wonderful Turner collection and room dedicated to his experiments with Colour & Line) and the National Gallery where I finally saw Turner's sublime Fighting Temeraire.

As well as a blissful visit to Waterstone's art book department with Katherine, I also hoed into two art shops - Cass Art (Charing Cross Rd), with a fantastic range and great prices and my old favourite, Green & Stone of Chelsea, where I couldn't resist a sheet of handmade Turner Blue watercolour paper.

I'm ashamed to say I returned with only two sketches. A lot of time was taken up eating fantastic food, culminating in Jean treating Jani and me to a delightful lunch at Mosimann's in Knightsbridge. Feeling a tad guilty about HWEM stuck at home with Snowy and Dermott, I did buy him a copy of Mosimann's latest recipe book. Some of you may put this down to self-interest since HWEM does most of the cooking and I, most of the eating!

So that was it - five days - three wonderful friends. Bliss!

Flying Pictures - Venice

2008-06-14T07:57:00.007Z

Watercolour, gesso, ink & gouache on grey paper (click for larger image)

Lindsay's Flying Pictures sketchbook is now in France with Casey. Since the theme of Lindsay's book is water, my contribution is Venice (above). It's the view from Piazza S. Marco across the lagoon. To the right, detail of some buildings on the Grand Canal.

Lindsay commenced her book with a beautiful and striking collage. I continued this theme, taking her little canoe through Tuscany and on to Venice. Will Casey be tempted to paddle the little canoe on through France? We'll have to wait and see.

You can follow the adventures of all seven books in the Flying Pictures Sketchbook Exchange here.

Fritillary in Coloured Pencil

2008-06-10T13:19:00.003Z

Fritillary Snake's Head
Derwent Inktense Pencils on grey paper

It's a year since I've sketched anything in my little multicoloured Fabriano Artist's Journal. I had resolved to use it to record everything that bloomed in our garden. Well the garden's blooming away and I'm way, way behind! I have painted a few flowers since but usually in watercolour sketchbooks.

I bought a tin of 12 Derwent Inktense pencils quite a while ago because so many people love them. I've hardly touched them since because they always look so gaudy to me when I add water. I was so disappointed in the sketch above I was really regretting that it was in my garden journal. I think I've rescued it slightly by adding some touches of white gouache.

Does anyone else have reservations about these pencils, or is it just me?

Watercolour Poppy

2008-06-06T09:40:00.005Z

The poppy I painted for my darling daughter's birthday.

Today I posted Lindsay's Flying Pictures Sketchbook on to Casey. Below is a peep at what I got up to.

You can follow the adventures of all seven traveling sketchbooks here.

Editors Note: Since a lot of people seem to have the idea that I came up with this clever collage concept in Lindsay's book I had better explain.

You will see from my previous post that all congratulations are due to Lindsay. She created the collage of the little canoes traveling along a mountain river and then left me half a page with some river, a sun and half a canoe. As a transition to the two pages I was adding, I simply added a Tuscan flavour with a couple of pieces of paper Lindsay had left over.

Flying Pictures First Sketchbook Exchange

2008-06-01T09:54:00.004Z

Lindsay's sketchbook has arrived in Tuscany. I thought it was going to take forever as most of our incoming mail does. Lindsay resisted the temptation to decorate the envelope so it couldn't be termed 'package' and end up in that Poste Italiane black hole in Milan.

What a surprise to find not only a beautiful collage by Lindsay but an envelope full of treasures for my own artistic adventure.

I love the little canoes passing through the mountains of beautiful Japanese printed paper.

Lindsay's Cover

Now I have to carry on Lindsay's water theme into the two pages I will add to her book before sending it on to Casey.

You can follow the journey of all seven handmade Flying Pictures sketchbooks HERE.

Inside Story - FP Sketchbook Exchange

2008-05-30T13:45:00.005Z

I sent off my handmade FlyingPictures concertina sketchbook, Different Strokes on Monday. It's now arrived safely in Casey's studio in France.

This has been the most beautiful Spring for wildflowers since we moved to Tuscany. I painted them in an olive grove outside the village, then added detail of the flowers.

I felt the painting turned out a bit too much like a chocolate box illustration but it's a weakness of mine, not knowing what to leave out. The bee was an attempt to show I'm not taking myself too seriously!

The book is 18 x 26 cm and I started it with 300gm HP watercolour paper. It is up to each artist in the exchange to choose the paper for the pages they add. The cover is a chocolate brown embossed paper. The bookmark lists the artists and their location.

Now it's over to Casey. I can't wait to see what she brings to Different Strokes.

Sketching in Val di Chio

2008-05-29T10:35:00.007Z

Lamy pen and wash with W&N Sepia ink

This week Sarah and I walked and sketched along the Old Mills Trail in the Val di Chio. Sarah has a post graduate interest in the ancient Etruscan waterways of the valley and her art is influenced by all things Etruscan.

Sarah sketching

Sadly we didn't find any old mills still standing but we did find grape vines growing in the traditional manner wrapped around the trunks of maples.

Lamy pen & watercolour - Canson 17.5 x 24 cm sketchbook

I'm still having trouble getting anything but very diluted colour with my waterbrush. Next time I think I 'll try the coloured pencil approach inspired by Katherine Tyrrell's lovely drawing in a vineyard not far from here.

Old stone structure in Val de Chio

I had to balance on a rock in the stream to take the photo above, so I didn't risk a sketch.

All sketches look a little drab here because I've had to scan the sketches because the light isn't great for photographs at the moment. Does anyone else have disappointing results with scans?

Flying Pictures Takes Off

2008-05-26T14:15:00.004Z

Sketchbook Cover

Flying Pictures is a sketchbook exchange with a difference. Initiated by Lindsay Olson and inspired in part by the current wonderful Moleskine exchanges, Flying Pictures sketchbooks will be constructed as they fly around the world.

Mine left for Casey Toussaint in France today. It consists of a front cover and four pages of HP watercolour paper. It also has two and a half pages of my art. When it gets to Casey she will take the paper of her choice and hinge her pages of art into the book before sending it off to Nina Johansson in Sweden. When it finally flies back to me, I will attach the back cover and treasure it for the rest of my life.

Inspired isn't it? I believe Lindsay came up with that great name as well.

I couldn't settle on a theme for my book so I've called it Different Strokes because by the time it returns to me it will be full of beautiful, different strokes by Nina, Glen, Vivien, Ronell, Lindsay and Casey.

In all, there will be seven handmade books taking to the air. You can learn about the rest of the Fliers and follow the adventures of the books on the Flying Pictures blog HERE.

Painting Cherries - It Must Be May.

2008-05-24T12:22:00.007Z

Watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook

Our artist friend Sarah came to lunch yesterday and I made my first Salade Niçoise of the year. Apart from Baked Beans on Toast with Perfectly Poached Eggs, it's about the only dish HWEM concedes I do better than he. For dessert we bought the first perfect cherries of the season. Sarah was on to me immediately, I wanted to paint them! And I did.

I received a postcard today from Lindsay Non-Linear-Arts and I'm posting photos of it by way of a teaser. If you haven't heard of Flying Pictures yet, you will very soon and that's all I'm saying until Monday.

Lindsay Olson's hand printed postcard

And the message on the back

The leaf I coyly placed myself.

Collection of Old Doors

2008-05-17T15:54:00.007Z

Moleskine watercolour sketchbook
Lamy pen with sepia ink and watercolour wash

A quick sketch. This one was done perched on my backpack stool. When a lady up the hill behind me emptied her mop bucket I made a hasty retreat.

And here are some more doors I strolled past on my way home.

Art Show Wrap-up.

2008-05-13T12:50:00.007Z

I was very proud of those hand cut black arrows fastened to our posters to guide patrons to our Mostra (show). This chap doesn't look very interested. Probably not an art lover.

Since our exhibition coincided with Maggio Castiglionese, a month of music and cultural celebrations, we weren't the only show in town by a long shot.

Those who followed the arrows would have found us tucked away in a beautiful old 13th century restored convent in the middle of the Centro Storico (Historic Centre) of town.

The exhibition space is actually the studio where we meet every Wednesday afternoon to paint. Nails would not have been a good idea in these walls, so the paintings were displayed on easels and tables.

Above is our hostess and fellow artist, Miranda who has a very demanding day job, so the fact that she takes the time out each year to mount this show is greatly appreciated.

I showed five paintings, two oils and three watercolours. Amongst all the classical oil paintings, my dead fish was a bit of a show stopper!

And finally some of the artists. Yours Truly in the middle in need of Hair and Makeup.

The whole exercise was a lot of fun and a tremendous challenge for my Italian.

Two Americans who live across the valley read about the show on my blog and made a surprise visit. Thank you Martha & Benjamin.

My artist/writer friend Sally from Sydney happily happened to be visiting too, so all in all it was a wonderful memorable week but as far as art shows go, with such a lot of standing around waiting for someone to show up, I'd rather be painting!

Spring Beckons

2008-05-05T07:53:00.004Z

Wildflowers in an Olive Grove - Nikon D40X

How can I justify sitting in my studio staring at my computer when it looks like this outside? Following a fine example by Making a Mark and Laurelines, this blog is going to take a short holiday - a week or two - hopefully to do some painting en plein air and some weeding in the garden.

Our art show is on for most of May and that is more demanding and tiring than I expected. A full report when it's all over.

Tulip Revival

2008-04-29T13:40:00.002Z

Watercolour - 13 x 21cm HP Fabriano

I love a survival story. After I finished sketching my fallen tulip yesterday I was about to toss her in the compost. She was so limp, having been lying in the garden for ages and then on my desk in the hot sun for most of the day. Something made me pop her into the jar of water on my desk. This morning I found her bright and perky and ready to rock. Amazing.

I'm not as happy with this painting and I'm aware it has some awful anatomical errors but I thought the girl deserved another outing for sheer survival spirit.

Fallen Tulip

2008-04-28T09:57:00.004Z

Fallen Tulip - 18 x 24cm Watercolour - Clairefontaine Sketchbook

One of the red tulips in the garden was broken off overnight so I put off the dreaded weeding to paint it this morning. It reminded me of a girl in a red satin dress who had danced too long at the ball and finally collapsed.

Red Shine Lily-flowered Tulips still standing

This is the first year I've planted tulips and I can't bring myself to cut them for the house or for art. I just take endless photographs when, in fact, I should be sketching and painting them.

I haven't been at all diligent about keeping up my Garden Journal sketchbook, but everything is photographed as it blooms. The other day I decided to start a new blog Our Tuscan Garden as a place to post these photos and tell the story of our experience making a garden in Tuscany.

I was very pleased that the title was available and very distressed when Blogger shortly after locked me out of my new blog. Days later the powers that be at Blogger have had time to check and have decided it isn't all spam.

The story begins at the beginning so it's going to take quite a few posts to bring our garden story up to the present day. I will continue to post my paintings from the garden here as well as on the other blog.

Now I really must get stuck into the weeding!

Old Japanese Design Book

2008-04-27T12:59:00.004Z

I wandered down to the antique street market in the village this morning, looking for an old book to alter into a sketchbook. But instead I found a little treasure that I certainly won't be altering. Now I would be grateful if someone who reads Japanese could tell me exactly what this book is.

I was very taken with the traditional binding.

It has 264 pages of examples of Japanese graphic art, possibly ancient logos. Some look like they could be patterns for kimono designs. Anyway the notan is beautiful and I'm thinking that there are many patterns here I would like to try in linocut, perhaps for bookplates.

They remind me a lot of mandalas.

I can't find a date of publication (that I can read) but there is a light pencil message in the front that says
Showa 38 and the date 1963. Can anyone help?

My First Art Show

2008-04-24T09:01:00.006Z

May is Festival Month in Castiglion Fiorentino - Maggio Castiglionese. My Wednesday afternoon oil painting group is putting on a show as part of the cultural activities.

Needless to say I'm pretty excited, since this is the first time I've exhibited.

Unfortunately my name doesn't fit any Italian spelling pattern, so when the proofs of the poster arrived I had become Robjn. The error was noted and now the final posters have been delivered. I'm now Robin Sinclaire! I think I preferred Robjn.

Possibly I'm a victim of Botticelli's Curse. Has the master taken offence at my copy of his Primavera?

They're nice big posters.

Dog with Opposable Thumb

2008-04-21T17:45:00.004Z

Click to read captions

It was bound to happen! Dermott, our Old English Sheepdog, seems to have grown an opposable thumb. This is because there was a personal request, via a comment from Katherine of Making a Mark , for Dermott to reply to my cartoon - A Day in My Life - in which Dermott seems to think he was short changed (or big bummed, more likely).

Anyway he just slapped this sketch (above) on my desk. It seems he would do anything for Katherine, which may have something to do with the fact that she gave him a special award in her annual Making a Mark Awards (MAMA) for 2007.

Sketch & Some Tuscan Sun Photos

2008-04-20T16:09:00.007Z

Watercolour & Lamy Pen with Sepia Ink - Moleskine WC Sketchbook

I packed my kit and head outside to sketch today. I'm a bit rusty and have a lot of trouble juggling a tin of watercolours outside and everything gets a bit wishy washy, using a water brush. Anyway Sketching Season has only just begun, there's always room for improvement. For the first time today I noticed that this little street is called Vicolo Buio - Dark Alley!

After I finished sketching, I took the long way home. Here are some photos for those of you who'd like to share my walk.

Castiglion Fiorentino is currently marking the anniversary of the passage of the liberating army that fought its way though the town during WWII. This photograph is hanging in the main square (above). Can you see the bomb crater in the road on the right side of the photo? That's the town , on the hill ahead.

And this last one is for Joan, who noted recently just how dead these little Italian villages are when all the shops shut and everyone goes home for a long lunch.