Sketching while the winds howl and rains fall

While some hardy souls are out painting in the high winds, cold rain and flying sleet others are nesting down with their books, pencils, sketchpads and inks.

Winter is a great time to doodle and doodling shouldn't ever be taken for granted. It's a wonderful way to limber up and refresh those creative juices.

Here are a couple of studies from this week, which has been windy and wet here in Tuscany.

A series of imaginary portrait sketches in pencil and another is a study of an orchid which I've been house sitting while her owner is away.

Dear Tuscany Pleinair - Congratulations to Pat Mahony Getz

Our congratulations go out to Pat Mahony Getz for her successful sale of paintings from the Tuscan Landscape. Pat took part in last Septembers Plein Air event in Florence Itay and these scenes were done on the spot in the hills of Florence. 

"Dear Tuscany Pleinair, I am coming up on almost a year since I had the amazing opportunity to paint with all of you in Tuscany. I want to thank you for the experience. Last night I was part of a large landscape show in Davis, CA. I had one wall devoted to eleven small paintings of Tuscany. Many of the paintings I did during the week. Some were more elaborate that I either completed or started from scratch based on studies or sketches. The huge surprise was that when I walked in for the opening reception every one of my paintings had sold. I have not had something like that happen since the the mid-80's. Thank you for allowing this to happen. I will attach two images from the first day's workshop where we were experimenting with value. I tore the images from my notebook, framed them and voila!"