firenze

Posted by Stephen Quirke on January 25, 2009 under Art, en plein air, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour | Be the First to Comment

A while ago I visited my wife’s family in Firenze.  I had presented a paper at a software engineering conference in Brussels and negotiated with my company at the time to visit Italy.  It was late October and Winter was setting in.  But one morning I caught a bus into town early and stood on the Ponte Vecchio and did these two watercolour paintings.  It was freezing and there was no-one about.  It felt so good to be painting in such a historical setting.  

I think this is the view downstream.  Someone pointed out the tower where Michelangelo hid when Florence was overrun by his enemies.   I will read this history again.  

 

I crossed to the other side of the bridge and did a painting looking upstream.

While I was painting, a rat the size of a terrier jumped into the river and swam across.