Urban Sketches, drawn through mostly Tuscany and Umbria over the last 5 years – many in my favourite towns – my home town of Pistoia and the hills around it, hilltop villages and larger walled cities. My aim it to avoid romanticising these rather iconic and naturally beautiful locations.
Over the years I have refined a technique or priming sketchbooks with gesso, and a random rapid ground of oil. Over this, and often fighting against this, I draw in pencil on site. The oil painting happens at a later time, pulling out of the background as loosely as I can, the sense and light and mood of these amazing places.