Capturing the jumbled nature of medieval architecture. Soft light and broken stonework | Original oil painting by Rupert Denyer

A picture of the completed painting on the easel in front of the subject. You can see the town in the background, also the artist's palette and colours at the bottom of the picture.

This side of Anghiari is a real pull for me, I love this town. I was drawn by the jumbled nature of the medieval architecture and the different greys in the stonework. The light was gentle, plenty of mist in the valley behind which softened the harshness of the sun quite a bit.

I made this is two mornings, about 2 hours each in total. There’s lots of drawing in this one. I kept the paint very thin and wet to start, to get a strong underpainting, getting the drawing right is an important part of the process for me. You can see below the first pass as I blocked everything in.

Is a photograph of the painting in progress after two hours. The panel stands on an easel with the subject matter in the background. You can see the artist's colours. The initial painting is very thin and the painting is broad and loose.

This town is steeped in history. Thomas À Becket stayed here for a while. Michelangelo was born at Caprese which is just 20 minutes down the road. And it’s the area where Piero della Francesca lived and worked. Anghiari is the town that appears under the elbow of Christ in the Baptism, I think that painting hangs in the National Gallery in London.

And the finished painting.

An original oil painting made on location. Shows the ancient crumbling stonework of a town. Made mostly of brown and green colours. The sky is changeable with clouds and some blue areas. The brushwork is direct and lively the painting is tradtional

12 x 10 oil paint on panel. Artist’s colours Michael Harding, Windsor and Newton and some Old Holland. I used a cobalt blue here (I felt ultramarine might be too harsh), with burnt sienna, cadmium yellow and the two whites, zinc and titanium.