Friday, 10 February 2012

Umbrian Landscapes

I have continued painting my Umbrian Landscapes and produced some larger pictures this time. These are around 40cms by 12cms using watercolour paints and ink pens on heavy cartridge paper.





The idea was to use the influence of the late Byzantine and early Renaissance artists as inspiration. Looking into their paintings, beyond the figures at the delicate landscapes in the background or the decorative architecture that often frames the figures that form the central characters in many pictures.










The landscapes and town scenes are simple, innocent and basic, the buildings and streets have an abstract quality to them. They are like the images we have of the places of our youth, of summers long ago.



Brightly coloured, muddled and juxtaposed, nothing is as it really appears but how we'd like the world to be. So too are these paintings, deliberately disjointed, out of proportion and more luminous than reality, like the holidays of long ago.





The pictures are all of the Umbrian landscape once more and show the a green and furtile provice full of hills, distant towns and isolated monasteies. Here you will find unexpected beauty in the middle of thick forest, picturesque towns as you crest a hill and gorgeous villages in the bend of a river. It is ever likely that the likes of Raphael, Perugino and Signorelli walked these paths to paint.

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Italian Hill Towns


Images of the beautiful hill towns, castles and monasteries that populate the hills and slopes of the Appennine Mountains in Tuscany and Umbria. All pictures are on cartridge papers and completed in water soluable pencils and ink, all are roughly 8.5cm x 13.5cm





The first in a series of sketches that depict the beautiful Tuscan and Umbrian landscape. Particular interest are the villages, towns, castles and monasteries that nestle amongst the hills of the Upper Tiber Valley on the border with Tuscany and Umbria.

Monday, 15 June 2009

Renaissance Painting Article



An article about the making of pigments and hues during the 15th Century.
Colours of the Earth - Renaissance Paints

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Bless This Field - Umbria Landscape Art

sculpture religious crossSpring has arrived and everyone is out planting their tobacco, corn, grain or sunflowers in the fields around San Secondo. Chemical fertilizers, water fountains and long hours of sunshine are one thing but always best to air on the side of caution where farming is concerned, so ensure your crop by asking the big guy for some help too.


All along the fields are these simple but lovely crosses made by the farmers from cane and leaves. I really like the way they bring the landscape to life. Rural, ethnic, sculpture the academics would probably class them as.


Saturday, 2 May 2009

The Umbrian Alphabet

alphabet umbria
Well if everyone else is using Google (other search engines are available) for their artworks I thought why not join the gang. So this is the Umbrian Alphabet, created by spotting letters in the landscape from the satelite images. As you can see Umbria is not called the "Green Heart of Italy" for nothing, with still 70% of its surface still forested.

Friday, 1 May 2009

Windows Notebook








I loved this piece, real live footage mixed in with animation and a typical Dutch sense of humour.

Click for Clip

Friday, 24 April 2009

Vintage car badge

classic motor
vintage car badges















I have been working on a site promoting Vintage cars from Uruguay and was asked to design a badge to fit the era and style. It was great fun researching all the different types of motifs used to promote these classic automobiles. Looking through them I came to the conclusion we have definately lost something in our modern logos, Designers just don't have the elegance these old badges convey. So these are my homage to a more classy era. In Uruguay a strange combination of political and ecconomic upheaval has left a massive collection of working vintage vehicles from the 1930's to the 1960's on the streets, many still running and in mint condition.
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