Olive Trees in Greece

A beautiful spring vacation on Greece's Peleponesus brought us to a house with this magnificent view. I did not have much painting material with me and made this small drawing to capture the serenity and the wide view of the place. Drawn with pencil and filled in with the palet of the Olive trees the basis of this picture and an ever enticing subject.

Wisteria in Andalucia, Spain

At a cold spring vacation we had rented a house in Spain with this grandiose and rich blooming Wisteria. I tried to draw it, to understand this amazing pant and it's flowers and failed with every attempt not able to catch the complex structures and colours of the plant.

Finally at the end of the vacation I put the drawing board aside and just took the most bright watercolour and painted from memory and within a time limit. The unconscious is often better than the frightened conscious mind that want to be perfect and looses itself.

View on the Tiber, Italy

Seated at the flowing water of the river Tiber in a late summer afternoon, just an hour east of Rome in the Sabina, I tried out my first wet on wet painting. That was scary indeed learning to float the paint on the water as the water drifted by.
After a while it also became fun and later working with the beautiful book on watercolour of my painter friend Jan I realised there is a new world to discover. Just the thing to post in the first month of 2010.