Outdoor Watercolor Challenges in Florence, Italy
This summer I spend a few weeks in Florence, Italy. I took my new light
weight watercolor easel and did some serious outdoor painting in the
city as well as the country, Tuscany!
Apart from the watercolors I also sketched quite a bit... Sometimes the circumstances only allow for some sketching and a few photographs in order to put down the impression. Sketching is a really good and quick way of imprinting your brain with the subject that is in front of you.
Painting outdoors can be quite a challenge, what also makes it fun! Nevertheless, weather, location, physique and off course the number of tourists hovering over your work determines the quality of the end result.
Nothing beats mother nature when it comes to experiencing new insights! It is great to see real colors, tone, depth and make the necessary creative changes to your chosen subject in order to make it all work on a piece of paper....
The Piazza de Pitti is my subject in the painting above. I found a painting spot that had a balcony with some morning shade and away from all the business. Perfect for capturing this view. The challenge for me was to generate depth and at the same time trying to capture that warm peachy building of the Palazzo in the distance.
The scene was almost too much....! The castle on the right, the tower and wonderfull building and light on the left.. And then to realise you only have a 30 x 40 cm piece of paper to capture it all. That is why I purposely kept it very simple in terms of color. Just the shapes and light to generate enough interest.
If you go over board... this scene will instantly look like a bad postcard. As a matter of fact, that was my challenge, to beat the bad postcard syndrome.... hopefully I managed to do just that.
Going away from the city of Florence made me travel into Tuscany and visit Gimignano.. The circumstances were interesting.... a 5 meter citywall drop off for my easel, blazing sun, hot temperature and strong wind.... it forced me to wear sun glaces and to speed up!.... I still managed to find a bit of color and kept the sunburn down to a minimum in doing this watercolor in not more then an hour.
This watercolor location was the opposite of the previous one... much easier circumstances from the comfort of my apartment I had this view - Via dei Serragli. Great Tuscany roofs and lots of mid afternoon light... Just had to see if I could simply capture that little window and its texture.. Every time I look at it.. it reminds me of a great trip to Florence that lasted almost a month!