Italy on lock-down

It's hard to escape all the news going on abut the Covid-19 virus, television, social media  Here in Sicily as in the rest of Italy we are following the government rules and not leaving our homes.
I'm grateful that I live in a house that is fairly isolated and we have plenty of outside space.

Painting or any form of art is a great way to escape reality.....dance, sing, make music, read books...it all helps. Here is one of my most recent paintings of  late blackberries covered in cobwebs.
I took the reference photo in October while in the UK for a quick trip to see my family.  It seems so long ago and now it's impossible to leave Sicily let alone Italy! Lets hope for better times.

oil on wood, 20x20cms here

How are you coping? I hope all of you are safe and well in these strange and worrying times.

Eggs is eggs

Oil on canvas board 24x18cms Sold

I've been enjoying painting a mini series of fruit and also these eggs in plastic wrapping or bags. I love the the mysterious way the plastic smooths out the edges and then creases over the subject.

More are on the way...

The moon came out

Mixed media on canvas, 50x50 cms

Another painting from my abstract deviation! This time I went bigger, much bigger than I normally paint and that I think, gave me more freedom. It was fun but I've painted over more than I've kept.
This process is still evolving.
Inspired by a wet weekend (it was meant to be sunny!) on the tiny Sicilian island of Favignana.
We did a lot of walking as the island is so small it's really not worth putting a car on the ferry. The hydrofoil is faster and far more exciting.

Available from my Etsy shop here

Trying out abstracts

Oil on gallery frame canvas 30x30 cms 

These were the first two semi-abstracts that I felt happy with...dipping my toe in the water!
Both are inspired by rivers and their reflections.

This is the beautiful reflection of Verona in the river Adige on a cold, cold day.  Verona is one of my favourite cities. I didn't need to abstract the reflections as nature had already done the hardest part!

Oil on  wood 20x20cms

Both of these paintings are available here and here

New Paintings

Both of these small paintings are commissions from last year. Normally commissions are not my thing but these are so in my comfort zone!

In 2019 I tried to push myself out of this place of comfort and I've been painting some abstracts. I will talk more about these in my next post.

I know it's a bit late but a happy 2020! 

oil on birchwood 20x20cms

A recent oil painting of lemons. Sicilian lemons smell so good!
Available from my Etsy shop

Greetings from Sicily

20x20cms oil on birchwood board. Available to buy from Etsy

 Greetings from sunny Sicily....still here and still painting!  These little fish are from a lively fish market in Siracusa. It was painted a while ago, but it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.

Living on an island the sea will always be important and little traditional fishing boats are a common sight along with fishing nets drying along the seafront and buckets of octopus.

I've had a little clean up and changed the look of my blog, what do you think?