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by Marc Dalessio

England and Wales

Plein air painting of a painter in the Woodford valley in Wiltshire.

Hazel Morgan painting the Woodford valley. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Here are some images of plein air landscape paintings from this month in England and Wales. I was teaching a weekend plein air workshop in London for LARA, and then a week-long course in Wales for the Welsh Academy of Art. In the interim I painted with my old friend Hazel Morgan in the countryside around Salisbury.

Plein air painting of cows in Lower Woodford.

Woodford Cows. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of fields in Wiltshire.

Late Afternoon by the Avon. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Salisbury Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

One thing I love about painting in the UK is how many talented plein air painters there are to meet up, talk shop, and paint with. While in Wiltshire (and Dorset) I had a couple of painting afternoons with Charles Church and Oliver Akers Douglas.

Plein air painting of a painter on the cliffs in Dorset.

Charles Church painting cliffs in Dorset. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of the Durdle Door in Dorset.

The Durdle Door, 35 x 25 cm, oil on panel.

plein air painting of barley fields above Tisbury in Wiltshire.

Barley fields above Tisbury. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

I intend to write a blog post about techniques for painting in the rain, and hoped to test new gear in the UK. Unfortunately we had very little rain, and blue skies for much of the time. I’ll have to wait for the Italian autumn to try my new set-up.

Plein air painting of sheep in Wales.

Sheep on a Welsh Hillside. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of children playing under a tree.

Children playing under a tree. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Narrowboats on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

Narrowboats. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Tretower in Wales.

Tretower Morning. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Painting studies of a Patterdale and Whippet

Patterdale and Whippet studies. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Painting of cows in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales.

Brecon Beacons cows. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Lastly, here a couple of paintings from my weekend in London. I painted with Roy Connelly and scouted extensively for views with both Roy and Julian Merrow-Smith.

Plein air painting of the Prince Albert Bridge in London.

Prince Albert Bridge, 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Cleopatra's Needle in London.

Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

by Marc Dalessio

Odds and Ends

Plein air painting of fallen tree stumps on Sljeme above Zagreb, Croatia.

Fallen Trees, Sljeme. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Here are a few plein air landscape paintings from the last couple of autumns and winters. I often paint small plein air sketches that don’t end up being part of a large enough group to merit a blog post, so I figured I’d put them all in this one. Most are from around Zagreb, but a few are from recent trips to Bordeaux and London.

Plein air painting of Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb.

Mirogoj. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air nocturne of a nativity play in Zagreb, Croatia.

Nativity Play, Zagreb. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Some of these are unfinished, including the two below where I was driven away by the pouring rain in Bordeaux.

Plein air painting of the horses on the Monument aux Girondins in Bordeaux.

Horses on the Monument aux Girondins. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of the Porte Saint-Éloy in Bordeaux.

Porte Saint-Éloy, Bordeaux. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air landscape painting of a sunset in Bordeaux, France.

Bordeaux Sunset. 17 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of the White Garden in the Rookery in Streatham.

White Garden, The Rookery, Streatham. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of the pagoda in Battersea Park, London.

Battersea Park Pagoda. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of a Calzedonia advertisement in the rain in Zagreb.

Billboard in the Rain, Zagreb. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

The above ‘Billboard painting’ was an homage to Telemaco Signorini’s painting of Leith in the Modern Gallery of the Pitti Palace. It’s always been one of my favorite paintings by him.

Plein air painting of the park near Zvijezda, Zagreb.

The Park at Zvijezda. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Sunday coffee in Samobor, Croatia.

Sunday Coffee in Samobor. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of the road into Samobor, Croatia.

The Road into Samobor. 25 x 28 cm, oil on panel.

by Marc Dalessio

Plein Air London

Here are some sketches from my trip to London. The weather was great the first few days but then got brutally cold (at least it was if you were standing outside in the wind and rain for hours at a time).

St Margaret’s Church. 12 x 8 in., oil on panel.

Battersea Power Station. 8 x 12 in., oil on dibond.

It was a very productive trip nonetheless, and I was helped greatly by painting with two fine plein air painters, David Bachmann and Roy Connelly, who knew the turf inside and out.

The Thames from Hungerford Bridge. 14 x 11 in., oil on dibond.

Trafalgar Square Lions. 6 x 8 in., oil on panel.

Trafalgar Square Lions. 11 x 14 in., oil on panel.

I really liked the lion statues in Trafalgar Square, though painting there after 10am was difficult with the crowds.

I didn’t have time to see any museums, and a great regret was missing the Edward Seago centenary in March as I’m a huge fan of his plein air work.

by Marc Dalessio

Landscape Drawings

Something that is not discussed often enough in plein air landscape painting is the importance of landscape drawing.  Looking through books on Corot or Levitan, you will see pencil, chalk, or ink sketches for nearly every painting they did, and a lot of landscape drawings that never became paintings. The Uffizi gallery in Florence has a large collection of landscape drawings. They used to allow people to copy directly from the original drawings for every artist except the major Italian Renaissance painters. I spent hours copying Corot’s landscape drawings as a student.

Landcape drawing of San Gorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy

San Gorgio Maggiore from the Società dei Canottieri, Venice.

Often when I travel I’ll spend the first few days just going around with a sketchbook and pencil to scout out places to paint later. It is obviously much easier to move around, but I also find drawing the landscapes first helps me work out the compositions and also makes it quicker when I paint the subject later, having already done the drawing once.

Landscape drawing of Morocco

A page from my Moroccan Sketchbook. Palm trees in Marrakech and the Fort at Essaouira.

The sketchbooks are also fun to look back over years later as many of the paintings are long gone (or were never painted to begin with).

For larger work I will often do multiple sketches as well as small thumbnails to try to figure out the best balance for the final composition. Since I can’t trust the perspective from photographs, drawings are a much better source for large studio landscapes.

Landscape drawing of Sosta del Papa, Chianti, Tuscany

Sketch for Sosta del Papa (over two pages in my sketchbook).

Landscape drawing of Battersea Power Station, London

Battersea Power Station, London.

My favorite sketchbooks for landscape drawings are the 112 page, 8 x 11 inch Kusnt and Papier hardbound sketchbooks, I usually get them at New York Central Art Supply. I like the paper they use, they’re very durable, and the small amount of pages make the books very light and portable. The pocket-sized, blank-page Moleskines are good too. I use a kneaded eraser, any brand of HB pencil, and a small plastic retractable x-acto knife to sharpen it. Having a long, tapered, insanely sharp pencil lead is the trick to getting drawings to look decent (and lots of practice, of course).

by Marc Dalessio

The BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair

The BADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair.

This week I have a few paintings in the BADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair in London with the old master dealer Constantine Lindsay. The Fair is held in the Duke of York Square in Chelsea (near Sloane Square) from the 25th to the 31st of March. The stand is A28, to the rear left of the fair as you walk in. More information on the BADA website.

Many of my better paintings from last year (as well as the Gstaad sketches from January) have gone into this show. You can see some of the work on Constantine’s website.