From a botanical standpoint, Tuscany in September was all about olives, lemons and grapes. They were everywhere! They were the subject of the three main location study/drawings that I did while in Italy last September. Now I am supposed to have a painting done by the end of February for advertising/marketing purposes. Our show at the Royal Gallery in Providence isn’t until May but the art magazines work on a 2 month lead time. So, here I am with only an egg tempera panel done, of what else? A Lemon! I feel that I should be represented first and foremost with a botanical, so I got out the drawings to decide which one to work on…
A beautiful bunch of grapes, a day before the grape harvest
Lemon branch from Villa La Pietra, Florence
Olive branch, drawn on location at a neighboring villa
I still couldn’t decide which to start on, so I used the easy way out; I will do them in the order that I did them in Italy. So here is the first one started…
Otino Olive Orchard
I can still feel the very warm Tuscan sunshine that enveloped me that whole afternoon I spent in Monica’s olive orchard! A welcome memory as our winter continues…