Marc Dalessio

There is a reception this evening (Thursday, March 4) for my small solo exhibition at Ann Long Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina. The show is called Il Giardino Italiano and it is based on a series of sketches I did for a commissioned piece last summer in Florence, as well as a few paintings from my September trip to lake Como. If you’re in the Charleston area stop by for a martini.

After the show, I’ll be in the U.S. for a month painting landscapes in North Carolina and California so my blogging schedule could be erratic.

View of Trevi from the Bed and Breakfast.

I’ve posted the dates and location for the first of two plein air workshops I hope to do this June. The area around the town of Trevi in Southern Umbria really amazed me for it’s picturesqueness when I was in Spoleto a few years back. I’ve been back a couple of times since then to scout the place out and I feel it has incredible potential for a plein air painting location.

The town is also quite beautiful and without much traffic, if the group is interested in cityscapes.

Picture taken in the center of Trevi this September.

For more information, head over to the courses page.

I’ve been slacking on the blog, I know. But it’s because I have a few long posts I’m working on which require lots of research and learning on my part, and I’m crazy busy at the moment preparing for shows this year. In the meantime here are a few more plein air sketches from winter in Florence. These were painted with a set of M. Graham oil paints which I have been trying out:

Corsini Garden in the Snow. 12 x 8 in, oil on panel.

Piazza Demidoff in the Snow. 8 x 10 in, oil on panel.

Christmas Lights on via dei Servi. 10 x 8 in.

German Market in Piazza Santa Croce. 10 x 14 in, oil on panel.

Boboli Sketch. 12 x 8 in, oil on panel.

George Inness. Early Autumn, Montclair. 1891.

It’s that time of year again.  Days are shorter, the rain is back, and the trees have all gone garish reds and yellows.  I’m not a big fan of Autumn landscapes, but as I still have to paint outside, I  thought I’d try to find some inspirational paintings to help me along. Inness was probably the greatest painter of fall, and by the sheer amount of scenes he did this time of year, it would appear he really enjoyed it.

George Inness. Early Autumn, Montclair. 1888.

The problem I have with painting fall scenes is that is very easy to end up looking like a Sierra Club calendar (no offense to the Sierra Club) in the sense that the views can be too beautiful. A story I often tell my students is about the time I watched dolphins jumping in the Pacific at sunset,  a stunning thing to see, and very moving, but under no circumstances would I ever recommend anyone try to make a painting of dolphins jumping at sunset. Some things can be inspiring and beautiful without being remotely picturesque and it is part of the landscape painter’s job to decide which is which.

Here are a couple of Levitans as well:

Isaac Levitan. On the Volga. 1887-88.

Isaac Levitan. Golden Autumn, 1895.

If anyone has more good Autumn landscape paintings to recommend, I’d love to see them.

I recently got a new DSLR camera capable of filming in 1080/24p full-HD (a Panasonic Lumix GH1) for some video projects I want to do. Having never filmed anything before (and I’ve only owned a regular camera for a couple of years), I’ve been using the forums over at DVXuser and youtube tutorials to learn a bit about shooting and editing the footage after.

These are my first attempts, so they’re a bit messy. The first was practicing with the camera while some friends painted a portrait sketch at Ben Fenske’s studio.

The second is my trip last week with Leo Mancini-Hresko and Joe Altwer to find where Corot painted his ‘Bridge at Narni‘ in southern Umbria.

My hope is to start using video to do tutorials, so stay tuned.

American Artist December 2009 issue.

There is an article about me in the new December issue of American Artist. It focuses on my method of using sight-size for plein air landscape painting. It should be on the stands this week if you have a chance to pick one up.

Update: You can download a PDF of the article here.

Here, quickly, are a few of the sketches from my trip to lake Como this week. We stayed above Varenna at the beautiful Castle di Vezio (if anyone is looking for an exceedingly picturesque agritursimo around the lake).

View of Bellagio. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

Monte di Tremezzo. Oil on panel, 25 x 35 cm.

Ben Fenske and I had a painting competition for the view above. We bet our cars and I thrashed him. Too bad I wouldn’t know what to do with a purple Opel station wagon. (To be fair, the last time we had a paint-off he won by a mile).

The Ferry Landing at Varenna. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

Varenna from the Port. Oil on canvas, 18 x 25 cm.

Sulle Colline di Settignano, 1885

Leith, 1881

Continuing the theme of brilliant regional painters from the Californian school post below. There is a Telemaco Signorini show in Padua at the moment which I am really looking forward to seeing. Signorini has always been one of my favorite plein air painters both for his superb painting technique and the wit he instills in his best work. Such as the play of the bright colors of the advertising billboard above contrasted with the greys and browns of the Scottish town, the lone dog on the wall in End of August at Pietramala below, and the contrasting of the various levels of human endeavor between the humble, transitory vegetable garden and the grand, immutable silhouette of the Duomo in (a painting I haven’t been able to find an image of and can’t remember the title!).

Fine d'agosto a Pietramala, 1889

Una Via di Ravenna

Signorini is probably the greatest painter of the Italian light, from the dirty summer skies contrasted with bright sun-lit roads, to his exceptional rendering of the long grey autumn and winter evenings. His draftsmanship is superb, and often in the small unfinished sketches you can see how everything was meticulously drawn in pencil before he started (Paxton recounted seeing Sargent do this as well with his seemingly freehand Venetian watercolors). Signorini’s brushwork and, often, palette-knife-work is always varied and unexpected, and I would be curious to know what medium he used as the variety of edge is really impressive, from the long soft gradations of the foliage and shadows, to his razor-sharp roofs and palm fronds.

Paesaggio Toscano, 1875

Also, the museums in Italy are all free this weekend. I just spent an hour looking at the Signorini at the Pitti Modern and was the only one in the place the whole time.

The Colosso dell'Appennino by Giambologna in the Park at Villa Demidoff.

For the next three weekends a few of us are participating in an exhibition at Villa Demidoff, a regional park a few kilometers north of Florence. The opening is Saturday the 12th at 5pm. There will be workshops on plein air painting and materials demonstrations when the weather permits. The park is only open on Saturday and Sunday and you can get more information on Ingrid Lamminpää’s website or at Artezeta (in Italian).