Marc Dalessio

As a kid I lived for a few years in the Fiji Islands and have always had strong memories of the beauty of the place. Recently I was invited back for a wedding and jumped at the chance. We stayed on the east side of the main island, which wasn’t my old turf, but is probably the more picturesque side (and it is certainly the drier side).

The wedding took place at the Vudu Point Marina, so I painted the boats for the first couple of days.

Boats at Vuda Point Marina. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

I had a lot of trouble with the colors at first, everything is so bright there.

Vuda Point Marina. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Even though its been about 25 years since I’d last been there, the place has changed surprisingly little. Since it wasn’t really a painting trip I didn’t get a lot of time to paint, still I managed to bat out a sketch a day.

Here are a few from Musket Cove Resort where the wedding party stayed, and Namotu Island Resort where we went for lunch a couple of times. Musket Cove is on a large island with lots of subject matter (well, mostly beaches and palm trees). Namotu is an amazingly beautiful little dot of sand next to some of the best surf breaks in Fiji.

From the Point, Manolo Lailai. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Airport Beach. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Boats at Musket Cove. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Beach on Ratu Nemani Island. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

The Beach at Namotu. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Jet Ski at Namotu. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

I had a lot of trouble with the wind as well. Here is the last day at Natadola Beach.

Windy Day at Natadola. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

I hope to get back soon with real equipment and do a focused painting trip (though that 23 hour flight in steerage is quite brutal).

Here are a few plein air paintings from stays on a friend’s estate over the last couple of weeks.

Castello di Reschio. 20 x 25 cm, oil on panel.

Fields and White Road. 30 x 40 cm, oil on panel.

Road in the Woods. 25 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

There is a tent they use for events which I was quite partial too. Here is a sketches from the north side, trying to get the effect of the light coming through the cloth.

The Tent, Reschio #2. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

And a few more from the area:

Reschio. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Cypresses. 35 x 25 cm, oil on panel.

Poplar at Umbertide. 25 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

Here are a few paintings from my trip to Montefalco. Again, one of the more picturesque spots on Earth. I’ve been trying to update my geotagged landscape archive so people can take advantage of all the hours I spend scouting around for views (see my earlier post if you have no idea what I’m talking about).

My painting companions this time were Greg Horwitch, Ebba Heuman, Alex Rooney and Rupert Alexander (if anyone was wondering why it’s been raining in Italy for the last two months, it’s because Rupert has been trying to paint outside since early May).

This time, I was very partial to the Clitunno river which runs north through the valley.

Fig Tree on the Clitunno at Casevecchie. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Tractor Bridge on the Clitunno. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Another Tractor Bridge on the Clitunno. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

We were there for wheat field season. Always one of the best times for plein air painting. Here are a couple of larger paintings of the fields.

Wheat fields below Montefalco. 90 x 110 cm, oil on linen.

Wheat Fields on the Trasimeno. 80 x 100 cm, oil on linen (work in progress).

Our scouting trips took us quite a ways from Montefalco. Here are some sketches from further north.

Sunset, Trasimeno. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Hay Bales at Montalera. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel

Poggio delle Corti and Perugia. 60 x 80 cm, oil on linen (in progress still).

The holy grail of landscape painting is a foreground, middle ground and background which compose together beautifully. The combination of the flat central valley, rolling hills, and mountains in this part of Umbria, combined with wheat fields, poplar trees, and picturesque hilltop towns, makes this one of the best areas to paint in Italy.

Here are some action shots from the trip:

Painting meter large canvases with a cigar box.

Greg at Casevecchie.

Ebba on Lake Trasimeno.

Alex below Montefalco.

Rupert scouting the wheat fields.

Me getting up over the olive trees near Trevi.

This is a video from a series I’ve been doing trying to demonstrate single ideas on painting using short films. I thought it was useful to post it now seeing as the landscape season is in full swing and all. There is an HD version as well, change the setting from 360p.

(Cool fact: the video was edited on a Dell mini 10v while sitting in a meadow).

A few people have asked me about the weekend workshops in July. I have an invitation to Sardinia so I wont be here this year. Instead I’ll try to do weekend workshops before then in a private garden in Florence. The  dates will be the 12th and 13th, and the 19th and 20th of June from 8 to 12 in the morning. There are only a limited number of places so let me know via email if you’re interested in joining: marc@ritratto.com

This is a somewhat embarrassing post, after the buildup about my trip to Albania. The truth is I was exhausted after all the painting I’ve done so far this year and when I got there I just slept on the beach for a week. I did manage to rouse myself on a couple occasions to paint some beach scenes.

Beach Cart at Durazzo. Oil on board, 20 x 25 cm.

Umbrellas at Durazzo. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

Durazzo. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

San Pietro. Oil on panel, 20 x 30 cm.

This was my fourth trip to Albania, but the last three times I’ve traveled exclusively in the south. This trip I did manage to make it up north into the mountains for a scout and painted a couple of sketches.

Guesthouse at Boga. Oil on panel, 25 x 20 cm.

The Old Farmhouse, Boga. Oil on panel, 25 x 35 cm.

The mountains above Scutari (Shkodër) are very unspoiled, with picturesque little villages and very friendly people. The roads get really bad after a while (and the electricity ends) so we couldn’t make it very far with the small 2-wheeled car we had. This September I’ll go back for a longer trip with my Land Rover.

Here is a short video I took from the car while scouting around the north. So much of landscape painting is driving or walking looking for views…

Years ago I heard about Edward Lear’s book on traveling through Greece and Albania painting landscapes and managed to track down a copy. At the time I was fascinated by the idea of  a writer discussing the technical aspects of traveling and painting en plein air in the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, Lear’s book has very little discussion of the methods and materials of plein air painting abroad and is more a recount of his travels. His paintings from the area are interesting, but very typical of studio landscapes done from drawings from the period.

I’m off to Albania tomorrow as well, and I thought I’d post a picture of the bare minimum I need to paint for 10 days abroad:

My ultra-portable travel kit for plein air painting.

A cigar-box palette pre-filled with paints, tripod easel with a third hook for the cigar box, lots of  prepared lightweight panels, a sketchbook with eraser and pencil attached, camera, cellphone with gps, and finally, brushes. Not shown are my Cowon mp3 player for painting in traffic and learning Albanian in the car, as well as my (non-flammable) medium in a shampoo bottle. I’ll buy turpentine after the plane lands.

Wish me luck with the weather, it has rained in this part of the world since I can remember.

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.

Here a few of the sketches from Big Sur this week. Local painter Mark Farina showed me Garrapata Beach where I ended up painting a number of pieces (Garrapata means ‘tick’ in Spanish which is rather ironic since I spend most of my summers trying to avoid Lyme disease on Shelter Island).

Garrapata Cliffs. Oil on linen. 14 x 10 in.

Morning, Garrapata. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Big Sur has huge views. To get a decent composition you often need to capture about a 90 degree viewing angle, which is impossible to paint on a small panel using sight-size, even with one’s nose pressed up against it. Most sketches I do on small panels occupy about 30 to 50 degrees of my field of view (normal human filed of view is 160 to 200 degrees), and sight-size works perfectly in those instances.

Garrapata Surf. Oil on linen, 8 x 12 in.

To sight-size a 90 degree field of view would require about a 6 foot canvas to work on at a comfortable distance which, in high winds coming off the Pacific, would lead to a whole ‘nother set of logistical problems.

The following two sketches of Pfeiffer Beach, for example, completely fail to capture the grandeur of the scenery.

Pfeiffer Beach #1. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Pfeiffer Beach #2. Oil on linen, 8 x 12 in.

That last one especially would have been the guest of honor at the after-painting turps party, if it wasn’t for plan B: I’ve been doing detailed drawings at all these spots to figure out compositions and hopefully, between that, the color sketches, and reference photos, I’ll be able to make something of them in the studio.

In the meantime, I’m back to focusing on smaller views.

Monastery Beach. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

Point Lobos Sketch. Oil on linen, 10 x 14 in.

I’m using very the very nice (and expensive) Classens-mounted-on-dibond panels from New Traditions, and a mix of M Graham, Old Holland, and Williamsburg colors. I find that some colors are better than others across brands.

Miss Gina. 14 x 11 in, oil on panel.

These are some of the sketches from my week in North Carolina. One of the more picturesque spots I’ve been to recently and some of the nicest people on the planet. I had great weather and was very fortunate to have an excellent guide of the area with the local talent, Jimmy Craig Womble. We also had two great plein air painters from Tennessee Kevin Menck (who has one of the more entertaining blogs out there) and Jason Saunders paint with us for the first few days.

Atlantic, NC. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

Beaufort Sunset. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

Elise 9. 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

Red Neck Yacht Club (I'm not being derogatory, that's the name of the boat). 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

We were talking one evening about great places to paint, and I mentioned that in Morocco the locals will bring you mint tea whenever they see you painting. At the above spot in Atlantic, the locals gave Kevin Menck a bushel of oysters when they saw him painting their boats.

Boat Lifts, Marshallberg. 6 x 8 in, oil on panel.

Shrimper, Radio Island. 11 x 14 in, oil on panel.

I was hosted wonderfully by Lee Dellinger and her husband Charles Jones and the paintings will be on exhibit (as soon as I can get frames sent over) in their galleries, Carteret Contemporary Art and Vision Gallery.

Joey's Boats. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

The World Traveler. 8 x 12 in, oil on panel.

The Two Galleries also have a blog with some action shots of the plein air group.

(Update: I was listening to OCMS while painting for much of the trip, so I thought I’d throw in a plug for them).