The Manarola Painting Project

Manarola - (Cinque Terre, Italy)

24" x 20" Acrylic on canvas

Photo reference by Elia Locardi

http://blamethemonkey.com/italy-cinque-terre-manarola-moonrise

A collaborative project between Google + artists  +Maude McDonald , +Terrill Welch , +Ardith Goodwin and myself +Melodie Douglas , with photographers +Elia Locardi  ,  +Marisa Williams  , and +Mike Brzozowski 

Back in September 2011 after seeing a beautiful image of Manarola Italy the above group of artists decided that it would be fun to all create paintings from a selection of images of Manarola.  This would showcase how different our styles, techniques and interpretations would be. 

To see the photographic references and my fellow artists paintings, follow this link Manarola Paintings & Photographs

Terill requested permission from the select group of photographers Elia, Marisa, and Mike, who so graciously allowed us to use their copyrighted images as our reference photos.  

My initial intention was to do my painting in a surrealistic approach, but the brush took over and chose to go it's own way.  

The majority of my paintings, both in acrylic, and pastel usually start off with a very detailed drawing which I transfer onto the substrate.  In the case of Manarola I instead chose to do a very loose drawing, done with a liner brush and watered down burnt umber straight onto the canvas.   

The sky was done with long sweeping brush strokes, with tiny value changes, each stroke closely laid against the last.

"As the brush swishes across the canvas, stroke against stroke, layer upon layer, a calmness descends, i'm in the zone, it just me and the painting! Bliss!"

The ocean was done with the same sweeping brushstrokes but I had to be a little more cautious and use even strokes to allow the water to be calm and quiet. Thin glazes of color were applied on top of the brushstrokes to achieve various depth and light.

There was a wonderful sense of freedom to just go for it, allowing the painting to paint itself and not being caught up in the details.

A Special thank you +Elia Locardi for allowing me to use your wonderful photograph.