UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN!

"Sunny Morning in Tuscany"  Oil on Canvas cm 60x80

If you were travelling around Tuscany right now you would be seeing miles  and miles of sunflower fields everywhere.

Every summer it's the same old story: I promise to myself I will not paint any sunflowers this year, as they are quite messy to deal with, but as soon as I see them popping out, I can't help it. So the other day I took lots of pictures in the countryside south of Siena, and then spent many hours in my nice and cool studio, trying to get something good out of them...

Here is a series of pictures that will give you an idea of how this painting came to life. I hope you enjoy them!

 Here is how I started out by using diluited acrilic colour for the underpainting,

I then established the dark areas,

made them darker,

and even darker,

I then started painting the sky and distant hills and fields,

then suggested  the greens and the shape of a few flowers in the foreground,

                                     
                                     
and eventually everything fell into place!