This one was made along the ramparts or the wall of the town. There was a fair taking place in the town, for artisans and craftsmen. This happens during the last week of April and the first week in May every year. It attracts makers from all over the country. And this includes all things from food to jewellery and furniture.
It’s really the first festival of the season as the weather starts to improve. Owners open up their fondos (basements) and the town has a real buzz to it.
The council are always involved in promoting the town, but they also take part. Along the widest part of the ramparts they set up a stall to sell brusticchino (and I’m not sure if I have spelled that correctly). They have two iron braziers with chimneys at one end, where they burn huge logs and then move the hot coals forward underneath huge griddles packed with sausages and slices of tuscan (made without salt) bread.
Under the awnings of the two stalls – the toast is then rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and the sizzling sausages are sliced longways, two apiece between slabs of oozing bruschette… and this was what I wanted to paint.
It’s the life I see, all this effort for what really amounts to a sausage sarnie… and rest assured, you’ve never tasted anything like it!
I made an early start as the sun climbed to the right of the painting. The hills in the distance were blue grey, there was some early morning mist in the middle distance which burns off quickly. I really loved the light on the two awnings and the dappled light on the ground. I used a cobalt blue to keep things cool, along with burnt sienna and cadmium yellow.
Quick work was required to capture the light. There wasn’t much colour in the sky at the horizon and the hills were silhouetted. A little light dancing through the edges of the trees. I knew this was a ‘in one wet’, subject which puts the pressure on. As the first hour went by more people started to fill the scene and I began to relax a little and enjoy the work as I felt I’d made a good start.
The smell of the wood burning was making filling my senses too. Soon enough I was in direct sunlight which added to the challenge! After a couple of hours I decided it was time to review across the picture and wind things up. It’s a small panel, 12 by 10 inch, so in terms of alla prima it is doable in 2 hours (after that time you have another painting on your hands in terms of light).
People started to stop and chat, some wanting pictures with or without me in shot. A parent from Luca’s school had no idea I was a painter and was pleasantly surprised (could have gone the other way i suppose!).
The light on the awnings and the backlit nature of the composition was what I was after and I think this worked out well. the quick searching brushwork adds to the feel of the picture. Brushwork is so important to keep a painting alive.
Rupert Denyer 