Five Hours at the Table, Drawing Everybody From Behind
The other half of the Colico day. A crow on a chimney with a mountain behind it, and then five hours at the table working through the week s photographs in biro.
Archives
Chiavenna and Piuro: Drawing the Pompeii of the Alps
A day of sketching in Chiavenna and Piuro, the alpine town buried by a landslide in 1618. Mossy alleys, soapstone workshops, green-glass river water, and evening pages turning gathered photos into working ink drawings.
Bellagio: Old Bicycles, New Crowds
A July ferry trip to Bellagio on Lake Como, where the crowds rewrote the plan and a stone house covered in retired bicycles stole the day. Five photos, all texture and geometry, for future linework.
Bellano: the Fisherman’s Son Who Painted His Village
Giancarlo Vitali spent ninety years painting Bellano and filled Milan’s Palazzo Reale at 88. A day at the Orrido gorge and art set into the village walls becomes a lesson: look harder at what you have.
Fifteen Million Years of One Idea
Back into the gorge at Bellano properly this time. Fifty metres of limestone carved into folds by one stream, walkways bolted to the wall, and the best drawing lesson on the lake.
North of the Postcards: Making Camp at the Quiet End of Lake Como
Skipping the glamorous end of Lake Como, an artist sets up a travelling studio in a village house near Colico, planning a week of daily sketching trips to Bellano, Varenna, Bellagio and Chiavenna.
Florence: Meeting the Forger Who Fooled the Louvre
A sketching day in Florence from the Oltrarno side: gesture drawings in the Boboli Gardens, gallery research on Via Maggio, and the strange story of Giovanni Bastianini, the sculptor whose bust fooled the Louvre.
Painted on Both Sides to Win an Argument
Inside the Pitti, where the pictures are hung five high and one of them stands in the middle of the room so you can walk round the back of it. Bronzino settling a four hundred year old argument about painting and sculpture.
Rome in a Day: Marble Giants on Borrowed Sleep
One jet-lagged day in Rome, seen through an illustrator’s eyes: the Colosseum before nine, sketch notes at the Vittoriano, pop surrealism at the Dorothy Circus Gallery, and pricing lessons from the Piazza Navona street artists.
Before Europe, One Canal in Bangkok and Two Very Good Birds
The morning before the long haul into Rome, spent on a canal on the edge of Bangkok. A dove doing scales, a heron standing perfectly still, and a boat full of greens.