Field of tobacco

Our area is notorious for tobacco production, all along the Tevere there are field after field of the crop. This is a quick sketch of the trees that line the river and border the tobacco. The whole area is still something like 70% wooded which makes for very interesting hillsides what are constantly changing with the seasons.

The Secret Monastery

Quick sketches of La Preg, side view
The much altered rear view

La Preghiera, (the prayer) is in parts over 1000 years old and started out as a monastery serving the monks of the area. The road past the front of the complex is on the St Francis trail from Cortona to Assisi so it is highly likely that he stayed here, ate bread and maybe said a prayer in the Oratorio. Now it has been completely refurbished and is an Agritourismo where you can spend a peaceful vacation absorbing the calm of the area. I luckily work here so get to sit in these beautiful surrounds on a daily basis.

June Gallery

Some pictures from the sketch book done during June.

Viola

Viola is my 1969 VW Camper, that has served me loyaly for the last 4 years, brought me 15oo miles from Wales to Italy and now acts as my pack horse travelling around the Umbrian valleys. The picture is one my father in law asked me to draw, as he prefers paintings to photographs, so this is my interpretation of our house with Viola outside. When I say our house, I mean the top floor apartment, if only I could afford the whole building.

10 pointless emails I get every day.

Every day I get a whole batch of emails from all over the world, friends, ex-colleagues, spam, adverts etc most of them are complete rubbish. What I am curious about is why every day I get the following ten emails (or variations of the ten).

1) Credit - with the world wide crunch on, why would I want more credit.
2) Letters from banks I do not have an account with advising me to change my details. Why, I don't bank with you. Don't insult me, I know you are phishing you fool.
3) Sad pathetic, obviously made up letters from sick individuals, in some African backwater whose father (the minister for lies and inventing things) has sadly died in a horrific skateboarding incident and needs to get $50m out of the country. Seek help you sick people.
4) A larger penis - I am happy with what God gave me thank you.
5) Viagra - thanks but no need and if I did I would go to see a doctor.
6) $10 credit on a gambling site - do not think I am going down the gambling route either.
7) Lonely East European girls looking for conversations - well get out and meet people then.
8) Excellent watches - I hate watches and really wear then, plus I do not need a new one every day.
9) Surveys regarding my attitudes towards whatever seems the big question of the day.
10) Jobs update on vacancies in America, I live in Italy the commute would kill me.

I wish these people would get a life, get a day job, get out of my hair and stop sending stupid pointless advermails, spamalogues and junkisments as I am not interested in any of the above.

Mad dogs and .............

So today is the start of my weekend as next week we have two weddings at the hotel, Monday sees the arrival of 11 Mexicans from Dallas and after that we have 22 Brits invading. Until then I have some peace and tranquility to get some drawing done. This is not that easy either however with temperatures averaging the mid 30's it is hard to settle and concentrate for the majority of the day. I know its a hard life.

I decided to walk to the next village, some 4Km away to pick up a picture I have just had framed and do some drawing along the way. Well I didn't take into account the time and temperature. 12.00 and 32 degrees was not conducive to painting so I settled on an ink sketch and completed the painting later when my watercolours had stopped behaving like icing sugar.

There is something so relaxing about a nice, steady, two hour walk, chat with the locals, cappuccino in the bar and a read of the papers on a Thursday afternoon. Enjoy it while it lasts, next week is all bells, smells and vicar where's my bouquet. Another J.B. Priestly novel looms.

Terry's Pad

Another typical Umbrian/Tuscan hillside villa, covered in grey rendering with natural stone showing through. It has the normal green foliage for a background you would expect as we are high up in the mountains here. I love the stone walls that surround these properties they look like they have been around for centuries but in many instances were reconstructed within the last couple of years.

This was a difficult painting to do as I had to work from photographes and have never seen the house. I think though, I have managed to get a feel for the building.