Its full and awful grandeur

"Its full and awful grandeur" was how Charles Dickens described the ruins of the Roman Forum. It would have looked different in his day, with the arch of Septimius Severus and Column of Phocas (left) half buried, and the Basilica Julia (foreground ruins) entirely underground. The church of Luca and Martina would have looked the same, and ditto the Curia Julia (right), except for its window arrangement.

This picture is in a group show at the Westland Gallery opening this Wednesday. 

Santa Maria della Salute

A House in Settignano

Fortezza da Basso

In the centre of the city of Florence broods a huge and uninviting fortress. It was built as part of the city walls, but like many urban fortifications it was designed as much to oppress the citizens as oppose the foes. Duke Cosimo didn't trust his people - they had exiled his family more than once in the past - and wanted to make sure his army was always on hand.

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Baptistery of Florence

A quick watercolour executed on my way home through the crepuscular streets of Florence.

The Ponte Vecchio on a rainy day

The view out the window of the artist's studio on via Nazionale in Florence, Italy, once maintained by the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Piazza Santa Croce on a clear day

Basilica di Santa Ciara, Assisi

A view, drawn from life in my sketchbook, of the basilica of Saint Clare - the close companion of Saint Francis of Assisi. She is buried there, in the 19th century crypt.

But the building is 13th century, and is a nice enough example of the rather squat Italian Gothic style of the central Middle Ages. It's basically a huge stone barn, with what are surely the ostriches of the flying buttress world. They barely look as if they could get off the ground at all.

Tuscan Oratory

Drawn on site, sitting on a step in Florence, using a dip pen.

A view of the duomo of Siena

A famous view of a famous building. How many tourists to Siena turn the corner by San Domenico and stop to see the city rising like barnacles on the opposite hill? I know I did.

This etching is based on a pencil drawing I made on site, which you can see here. I made a quick watercolour as well, as the sun went down. See it here.

Note how both watercolour and drawing show a mirror image of this picture. That's because the process of etching flips the image.

Fonte Nuova d'Ovile, Siena.

This was, I think, the first picture I made in Siena, Italy. I cycled from Florence - not a short ride - and into the hilltop city. My route to the city centre took me past the Fonte Nuova - that's the new fountain, of course, built as recently as the late 13th century by a pair of architects with the portentous names of Carmaino di Crescentino and Sozzo di Rustichino.

Of course I had to stop and get out the watercolours. I used the fountain's water for my brushes.

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Part of Santa Maria Novella, Florence

street in Florence

Torre del Gallo

The Torre del Gallo broods over the hills to the south of Florence. Despite its impressive medieval ambience, it is a modern invention - although there was a castle on the hilltop, that in the 13th century controlled the road to Impruneta. But the tower was built around 1905, and has been through some vicissitudes since. In WWII, it was briefly a prison camp.

I made this watercolour on site, in early May.

The isle of the dead in the Venetian lagoon

I took a seat on the north-east edge of Venice and made this post-card sized sketch of the city's cemetery island. Relatively recent by Venetian standards, the cemetery was founded adjacent to the old abbey of San Michele, which gave the island its name.

The path in the woods

A watercolour sketch of the woods adjacent to San Miniato, just south of Florence.

Drawing a view of Siena

Siena, as I have mentioned more than once, is one of my favourite cities. It combines variety with consistency in just the right degree. I made a large drawing of the city's core, including the zebra-striped tower of the cathedral and the hulking skeleton of the never completed duomo nuovo. The sightline between the two trees originates at Santa Maria degli Servi, another of Siena's many churches - one I have depicted before.

This is just a detail of the original, which measure around 20" square. You can see the whole thing here, and in situ on instagram.

I used a variety of drawing media, starting with a pencil outline. Then india ink, via brush and dip pen, Pigma micron pens, my beloved Pentel brush pen, and a china marker. The drawing is currently on display at the Locomotive cafe in London, Ontario.

tree and Saint Peter's

I drew this in a matter of minutes, standing in the window of the Vatican Pinocoteca. There was a Raphael near by, but sometimes real life outweighs the greatest masterpieces.

You can see the arch and stairway reading to the garden pavilion begun by Pope Paul IV in 1558, now known as the Casina Pio IV after the later pope who competed it. In the distance, the huge dome of Saint Peter's, and between them a beautiful pine tree that deserves a name of its own - to judge by its size, it may be as old as the buildings.

drawing in the dark

A homage to jet lag. I had just arrived in Italy, from Toronto, and sleep was out of the question. So I walked out into the night, crossed the Arno on an easterly bridge, and strolled up into the hills. I had with me a pot of india ink, a nib and pen, and an old brown sketchbook. It was enough.