Four years ago, on our first trip to Italy, we spent a week in Tuscany. My daughter arranged an apartment rental in a winery/small village on the Chianti highway. Located between Sienna and Florence, the winery has been in the same family for over four centuries. In addition to the winery and the family's estate, their is one street with several private homes giving Fonterutoli a village status. Like so many other wineries in Italy, older buildings...and I mean OLDER...have been converted into apartments for tourists.
Returning home, I set out to this beautiful place using photos from our visit.
I made a good start with the sky and the background trees and mountains, but when it was time to render the architecture, which I consider my strong point, I hit the proverbial brick wall. I don't know how many times I worked and re-worked the buildings, never getting them "right". I moved on to the rest of the painting, convincing myself it was OK, not great, but OK. I was not surprised when it evoked only polite, luke warm reactions from viewers. I eventually place the painting in some hidden corner in the studio where it languished for several years...until last week.
I don't know why, but I woke up one morning with the very clear idea that I could salvage that painting. The first step involved re-painting the village and re-working the middle ground trees and foliage. This time, for
reasons I don't understand, the task was easy and I was pleased with the
results
.The second step was to improve on the immediate foreground, breaking up the rather boring horizontal strip that it was.
I think it is a much better painting. Could it be better? Certainly. But that will have to wait for another painting.
