The Ligurian coastline is possibly the most iconic in Italy. In addition to being extremely scenic and beautiful in its own right, the coast of the Cinque Terre is home to some incredible geology, the sharp jagged rocks are characteristic of this coast.
This is my painting of the rocks at Riomaggiore.
Rocks, Riomaggiore. 40cm x 50cm. Oil on panel.
Many writers and poets have stayed along the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia. Riomaggiore, the first village of the Cinque Terre was an accessable and important place in the painting world in the 19th century. Riomaggiore inspired the Florentine painter Telemaco Signorini.
Sea and alleyways, light and shadow. The dark and narrow streets, the lashes of the sun between the rooftops, the melancholy of the steep stairways, the quiet small piazzas, the bright colourful houses. Riomaggiore has it all. It was thanks to these characteristics that Riomaggiore ended up playing a fundamental role in defining the Macchiaioli school.
Below is the view he painted of the harbour during the end of the 19th century.
Here are a few oil paintings of things that grew in our garden this autumn. I enjoyed doing the couple of still life paintings outside instead of placing what you find outside and then bringing them inside and placing them carefully on a table with the right light like i did with the onions.
                                                            Saffron Crocus. Oil on panel.
These are the Crocus that you can use for cooking, the red strands of saffron are more valuable than gold and taste better too although I’ve heard some crocuses are posionous if eaten so be careful!
Onions, Oil on Panel
Beautiful pink onions from the garden, one of Renoirs most memorable paintings (in my eyes) was a still life of some onions – “Oignons”- that reminded me of these ones although I think his were a different variety with the skin being more yellow. His onions came from Naples đŸ™‚
                                                                   Three Quinces, Oil on panel
Three quinces from the tree lying in the grass, I love the shape of them and their classic yellow colour when they are ripe.
Here a few paintings while visiting the Isle of Wight. The weather was always sunny hence the repeating painted blue skies! This is a great spot of the entrance channel from Bembridge harbour leading into the sea. The old breakwater in the foreground is in need of repair as now the sand and shingle from the sea is fillling up the small harbour pretty fast. One day it will end up as a big sand pit. Then what will the owner of the harbour say?
Study Of Shells. Oil on panel, 30cm x 40cm.
This painting is currently on show in London for the Royal Society of Marine Artists in the Mall Galleries. It is a small still life of shells that my daughter found on Ducue Beach. When I got back to Italy I bluetacked the best shells onto a blue book and set them out in the sunlight to paint.
Bembridge Harbour. Oil on panel, 30cm x 40cm.
A nice spot of Bembridge Harbour to set up and paint where you can watch the boats and the tide go in and out, and the sand and shingle come in.
Seaview. on on canvas board. 30cm x 40cm.
Seaview is walking distance along the beach from Bembridge when the tide is out. In the distance you can see the mainland.
My oil painting ‘Lifting Fog on Ducie Beach, Bembridge’ has been selected for the Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition in London. I very much enjoyed looking around the show last year and it felt nice to be in a gallery surrounded by paintings inspired by the marine enviroment, it had a good feel with everyone exploring all the many diversities of the one subject, the sea, and I had hoped to take part in it one day. So ‘one day’ has arrived and I am looking forward to visiting the exhibition next week. Most of the paintings are of the British coastline including mine that was painted on a beach in the Isle of Wight which is an island in the south where part of my family are originally from.
Lifting Fog, Ducie Beach. Isle of Wight. 50cm x 70cm. Oil on Panel.
I had hoped for a completely different feel when I set out to paint this one March morning last year, the sky was blue when I set out and I had planned to paint the view of the Bembridge Lifeboat Station with the tide breakers on the beach. I think that is why the sea is so fascinating because nothing can be planned and it all changes so quickly, the fog rises while the tide goes out, reflections in the water are there for a moment then they disappear while I am still trying to paint the sky and what is not there in the distance!
Google Maps have put together an interesting map of everyones paintings showing in the upcoming Marine Exhibition and where they were painted along Britain’s coast. Here is the link:
I often visit the Isle of Wight to catch up with family. When I was young we used to go for seaside holidays and visit my Granny who spent 101 years on the Island. Fond memories of times are spent there, on the car ferry over and then down to the beach at low tide. It was the British holidays by the sea that you don’t forget. The cold wet sand rubbing in your jelly sandals, the damp wind nipping your neck as you looked for sandy shells and then the walk home with handfuls of buckets and spades, dodging the dog mess on Ducie Avenue.
The Isle of Wight gives plenty to paint. There are the high downs and soaring cliffs to long sandy beaches fringed by farms and trees, fishing villages and sailing clubs. Here are just a few painted from my last trip. Others I will post soon when they are photographed.
Path to the Beach, Bembridge, Study. 20cm x 30cm. OIl on Panel.
Narrow bridleways and footpaths run all along the coast, you can walk all around the Island if you wish too. Next time I will go back with a bigger board to paint on because I liked this composition and all the receding greens. A little bit of blue sea in the distance is all I needed without having to go and get sand stuck in my paintbrushes on the beach!
Rising Tide Towards Seaview. 45cm x 50cm. OIl on Panel
This is the sea seen from the top left corner from the previous painting. When setting out to paint on the Isle of Wight you need a tide timetable to coordinate your painting time. It goes in and out more or less once a day, sometimes I would hope to paint the sand and then arrive and realise that it was still two feet under the sea. So here the tide was coming in and so were the crabs. Its amazing how they they find toes so tasty and I had to make a run for it, also my easel got really rusty after its little paddle in the salt water. I’m sure tying some type of plastic around each leg would save it in future maritime trips! The sea gives us so many moods and colours to look at and it is so changeable, nothing is ever the same as you left it the day before.
Lifting Fog, Ducie Beach. Isle of Wight. 50cm x 70cm. Oil on Panel.
And this is the same beach again, Ducie Beach in the early morning just as the fog was lifting. I hadn’t planned to paint fog that day, I had in mind a crisp view looking towards the Lifeboat Station with all the breakwaters in the foreground. Thanks to the fog I managed to blur out all the nitty-gritty because what I really wanted to paint were the old and gnarly breakwaters, (the wooden posts that artificially protect the beach from water erosion and are quite characteristic of this beach, anyway to me they are).
Lobster Study. 35cm x 45cm, oil on panel.
One thing for sure is you have to eat a lobster. I painted this one before it was politely devoured. These ones from the English Channel are bigger and sweeter than from anywhere else!
The Needles, Alum Bay. 17cm x 35cm. Oil on Panel
These toothlike white stacks of eroded chalk which have become world famous are called the Needles. The name comes from a fourth pillar (shown in the engraving below) which was more needle-shaped than what we see today. The original ‘Needle’ pillar collapsed in a storm in 1764, and at the far end is a red and white lighthouse which warns sailors of the treacherous waters. The Needles are both frightening and beautiful, a place for pirates, shipwrecks and suicides but also an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The Fourth “Needle” that collapsed in 1764. ‘The Needles from Isaac Taylor’s “one inch map” of Hampshire’.
Please check back for more paintings of the Isle of Wight soon!
I had some yellow roses growing on a wall and with all the sun and dry weather this summer the blooms were at their best! This is an oil study I painted before they all disappeared.
In this painting I mainly used a flat brush. For me brushes are an important part of my equipment and the flat brushes especially because I find them to be the most versatile because you can make many different strokes, a wide stroke, a narrow stroke and then by twisting a triangular stroke which helped with the petals.
This summer I have been busy with lots of new works and I will post some them as soon as my computer is on the mend đŸ˜‰
I don’t know about you but here in the north of Italy it has rained for the whole of June. Where is Summer? This is a study of my daughter who sits still long enough for me to paint, even though it’s nearly summer most days it feels like April!
In this painting I needed alot of Cadmium Red Light for the sofa which is an very intense orange/red – a really bright, bright red! Other reds verging towards crimson are more darker and duller. I also really noticed while painting this how much cadmium yellow and red pigment I needed to mix into my palette to try and get that cozy artificial light coming in.
Cadmium is expensive to buy but worth every penny. High quality artist’s grade paints generally contain far more pigment than the cheaper student paints so in the long run you use less and they last much longer, both in the tube and on your painting. Once I ground a few tubes of my own cadmium red and that tube really did last along time, it was worth all the effort but now too unhealthy to make your own paints with children about!
Orange Tree and a Damigiana. Oil on canvas, 30cm x 40cm.
Finding a title for a painting is a sometimes a struggle! I chose this view because I liked the effect of the afternoon light on the house and the orange tree with the glass damigiana in the foreground but when it came to finding a title nothing very interesting came up. In Italy the glass bottle in the foreground is called a ‘damigiana’ and in English a ‘demijohn’. The word damigiana is definently a more elegant term than the blunter English word demijohn which I wouldn’t have put in the title !
Traditionally in Italy a damigiana is used for wine making and you are always sure to find a good selection of empty ones like this in most rural Italian families although nowadays they are used less due to the more modern ways of wine making. Except you can’t beat a damigiana full of wine compared to a bottle!
In these two sketches from life I aimed to capture the movement in what was infront of me instead of fussing over a bigger composition and trying to make a more interesting picture. A raging torrent after a big storm and a sun filled, bright yellow Mimosa tree that was exploding with yellow flowers are just a couple of March’s crazy offerings.
Today it is International Womans Day and it seemed a good day to post a picture of Mimosa (in Italy it is the number 1 flower today!) and lets give hope and courage to women and their familes fleeing from war torn countries.
Branch of a Mimosa Tree. Oil on board, 20cm x 30cm.
Aaaaah it’s that time of day again, when it’s all quiet apart from the sounds of sleeping children. The golden hour. It is both exciting to be a parent and to be a painter, life generally becomes more complicated but richer at the same time and if you mix the two together it becomes creatively rewarding when time is on you side!
Anna Dennis | Oil Painter 