Marc Dalessio

After 18 years in the Oltrarno of Florence, I’ve left Italy for a while. I’m currently living in Zagreb, Croatia and will be moving to Maastricht, Holland in February.

Here are some sketches from the center of Zagreb where I’ve been living the last few weeks.

The Cathedral from the Marketplace. 35 x 25 cm.

Frost, Mirogoj. 25 x 35 cm.

The Walls at Mirogoj. 35 x 25 cm.

Tkalčićeva Ulica. 30 x 20 cm

First Snow at Mirogoj. 20 x 30 cm.

Palmoticeva ulica. 30 x 20 cm.

Lotrščak Tower. 30 x 20 cm.

Zagreb. 25 x 35 cm.

The Bar at Zvijezda. 20 x 30 cm.

The Cathedral, Zagreb. 30 x 20 cm.

The walls at Villa Le Rose. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Winter has set in and pushed me indoors so I’m currently enlarging the small sketches from this summer for shows next year. This was the last batch of Tuscan plein air sketches from the warm October we had there. They are all painted at the beautiful Villa le Rose property just south of Florence.

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Daniela Astone and I just finished our back-to-back plein air courses in Chianti and the gulf of Baratti. We had 19 glorious days of sunshine during the two ten-day sessions. Here are a few of the sketches I managed to bat out during my time off from teaching.

Baratti Dawn. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

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Here are a few of the sketches from our trip to Castiglione del Bosco.

View from La Befa. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Graveyard at La Pieve. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Cypresses at Quinciano. 15 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Two views of La Piana. 30 x 20 cm, and 35 x 25 cm, oil on panel.

La Badia Ardenga and Montalcino. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

View from La Piana. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Montalcino from Bibbiano. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Construction at Bibbiano. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Bibbiano Scalo. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

There are also a couple of larger plein air pieces which I’ll post when I’ve finished them.

I just got back from two weeks of plein air painting on one of the more beautiful estates in Italy. We were put up by a friend who asked me to invite excellent landscape painters from around the world for something of a symposium of painting. We had a good turn out: Ben Fenske, Jory Glazener, Joeseph McGurl, Edward Minoff, Rick Piloco and myself were the core group. Charles Cecil, Daniela Astone, and Mathilde van der Does de Willebois and Fiona Corsini came for shorter stays.

Here are some random photos from the trip.

We had perfect weather, great food and wine, excellent company, and it was one of the best seasons to paint in one of the more beautiful areas of the world. A resounding success all around.

Years ago I drove through the same valley where we stayed and always wanted to go back and paint there, so it was great to be offered this occasion in that exact spot.

Joseph McGurl is probably the contemporary landscape painter who had the most influence on my own work. I saw a show of his in New York when I was just starting out and it really made me see what was possible with landscape painting. It was great to be able to paint with him after all these years.

I’ll post photos of my paintings when I have a chance.

Here are a couple of larger studio landscapes done from sketches from my trips to California the last couple of years. They were finished earlier this year but I just got around to photographing them.

The first is a view of the bluffs where I grew up as a kid in Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles).

The Swarthmore Bluffs, Pacific Palisades. 59 x 72 in, oil on linen.

And the second is from sketches of Garrapata Beach in Big Sur, California.

Lifting Fog, Garrapata Beach. 59 x 72 in, oil on linen.

Here are a few recent larger landscapes. All done en plein air here in Italy.

Villa Argiano. 80 x 100 cm, oil on linen.

Benabbio. 80 x 100 cm, oil on linen.

Poggio delle Corti. 60 x 80 cm, oil on linen.

Sant'Angelo in Colle from Argiano. 80 x 100 cm, oil on linen.

Gualdo Cattaneo. 80 x 100 cm, oil on linen.

Bagni di Lucca. 60 x 100 cm, oil on linen.

Below are a few smaller sketches from a recent trip to Montalcino. I stayed at the beautiful Castello d’Argiano  and the reason there are no early morning paintings is due to their great hospitality and wonderful wines.

Montalcino, Sunset. 25 x 35 cm, oil on dibond.

Convento dell'Osservanza, Montalcino. 25 x 35 cm, oil on dibond.

Pieve di Santa Restituta. 25 x 35 cm, oil on dibond.

Castiglion d'Orcia. 20 x 30 cm, oil on dibond.

These are a few of the paintings I worked during my free time over the past ten days. The first is from the same spot where I painting the same large landscape ten years ago. I got a bit worried at one point, “What if my painting has gotten worse?”

The Marsiliana. Oil on linen, 80 x 100 cm.

The next three are all from the same spot, just playing around with different light effects.

The Entrance to the Marsiliana, Back-lit. Oil on linen, 50 x 70 cm.

The Entrance to the Marsiliana, Overcast. Oil on panel, 25 x 35 cm.

The Entrance to the Marsiliana, Side-lit. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

I also did a bunch of little sketches while doing demonstrations, but they didn’t make the cut.

Here are a few photos from our ten day plein air course at the beautiful Tenuta Marsiliana in southwestern Tuscany.  We’re trying to find the most picturesque spots in central Italy for these workshops.

Dawn painting at the Marsiliana.

On the road up to the castle.

A little ruined church we found nearby.

Plein air on Monte Argentario

Final critiques at the castle.

Overall the trip was a great success. We had a couple of bad days with the weather, but there was a quick portrait workshop to substitute.

Next year Daniela and I will start the workshops again in May to catch wheatfield season. Hopefully somewhere south of Siena. I’ll post the dates and details as soon as I find a suitable location.