Impressionist landscapes and cityscapes
This is the Canal de la Robine in the Languedoc-Rousillon region of France. In Narbonne, the canal is very densely built-up and urban, but just outside, it is very quiet.
My aim here was to capture the morning light shining through the February leaves. The oil paint is used very thinly, almost like watercolor to get a luminous effect.
36”w x 24” h
Oil on canvas
$950.
The Castle of Beja is found in the second city of the Portuguese region of the Alentejo. It features the Torre de Menagem, which is a Roman castle, rebuilt in the Middle Ages. We usually stay in Evora, the primary city of the Alentejo, but one year tried Beja for variety’s sake. The Alentejo is very pretty and has the best food in Portugal.
Oil on canvas
36”w x 24” h
$950.
Trajan’s Column was built in 113 A.D. at the edge of the Roman Forum to commemorate the Emperor Trajan’s victories over the Dacians in what is now Romania and its neighbors. What is so amazing is that it is still there, in the same place, looking much like it did two thousand years ago. It is the model for every memorial column put up ever since. A pope put a statue of Saint Peter on the top in the sixteenth century, but that didn’t have much effect. Susan and I were just returning from lunch in the café at the top of the Vittoriano when we saw this scene from the front steps. It had rained several times that day and was about to pour again. The dark clouds that were coming out of the East were moving very fast.
Oil on canvas
24”w x 36”h
$950.
Susan and I have stayed in Tavira on the southern coast of Portugal several times. It is one of the few towns in the Algarve that is not just a beach resort, but a picturesque place separate from the beach. The Ponte Romana is the old Roman bridge which spans the inlet that serves the town, as seen reflecting in the still waters.
In this painting, I tried to capture the bleached white houses on the opposite shore, which look almost North African, and the beautiful arches of the bridge and their reflections.
Oil on canvas
36”w x 24”h
$950.
This is a gorge in southern Morocco, with brilliant sun throwing half of the canyon into shadow. The tiny figure on the camel is Susan, who insists that the painting should be Portrait of Susan with Todra Gorge. The colors of the stone in sun, in shadow and in the distance were so distinctive that I just painted them as they were – no drama added. Our visit to Todra Gorge was part of a three day jaunt down into the Sahara, guided by Rashid Lamrani, who appears in my painting of the Alhambra.
Oil on canvas
36”w x 24”h
$950
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The Aude River at Carcassonne sits below the castle town in southwestern France. In the 1200s, the Pope and the king of France massacred millions of Frenchmen in this area in the Albigensian Crusade. Though the history is terrible, Carcassonne is beautiful and like a fairyland version of the Middle Ages.
This is one of two small paintings of Carcassonne. I was trying to capture the otherworldly, medieval look of the town in late February.
Oil on canvas
16” x 20”
$750.
In this painting of the Alhambra, the light from the courtyard spills onto the wet marble floor and makes a reflection of the copper doors. The arches and the person are silhouetted against the shine. The man in the burnoose is Rashid Lamrani, who was our guide in Morocco. He is a very modern young man, but one day his friends dressed him up in a burnoose, and he immediately looked very exotic. He appears to be looking down at something very important, but, in fact, was checking his cellphone. I moved him from Morocco to the Alhambra in Spain because I wanted a traditional looking figure in the painting.
Oil on canvas
24”w x 36”h
$950.
The Pincio Park, or the gardens of the Villa Borghese, are the Rome equivalent of New York’s Central Park. We’d often sit in our favorite café in the park to write Rome Secrets or CityTravelBlog. This is the Temple of Diana in the park in the sun, with several picnickers on the lawn in the foreground in dappled shade.
I was interested in capturing the subject in bright light in the background, as it so often is in 18th and 19th century landscapes. The middle ground is alternately sunny and shaded, and the silhouetted tree in the foreground gives the composition depth and drama in a somewhat Japanese way. I often like a tree in the foreground as a way of dividing the canvas and giving drama to an otherwise calm landscape.
Oil on canvas
36”w x 24”h
$950.
Siena is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It is composed of a series of ring shaped streets on a hilltop, with terra cotta and yellow ochre walls and roofs everywhere. It was one of the great competitors to Florence in the Middle Ages, and still has a gracious Medieval appearance composed of wonderful architecture and lots of money. This is the view from the town-hall tower on the Campo in the center of town. I’ll only go to this level, near the bottom of the tower because I’m afraid of heights.
In this painting, I tried to capture the complexity of the hundreds of planes and variety of terra cottas, all seen in the brilliant Tuscan sun. I used lots of linseed oil in the paint to get a fat, rich paint that would carry the intensity of the colors. I also painted it on a large canvas to show off the view.
30”w x 40” h
$1100.
This was the view from our window when we used to stay at the Hotel Pantaleone in Rome. The hotel was in a palazzo, but is gone now, and we rent our own apartment. We were on the top floor, in the cornice. If I leaned out the window, I could see the Chiesa de San Andrea delle Valle. It is one of the most spectacular Baroque churches in Rome, and therefore in the world. I think it’s great in the ‘smack you between the eyes’ way that Roman counter-reformation churches were. Looking down at the street, we could see the late afternoon sunlight and the gathering storm.
Oil on canvas
24”w x 30”h
$900