Two years ago, in 2018, September, I attended a workshop for en plein air painting, under the tuition of Stefan Baumann. It was a 10 days long event, filled up with many sessions of painting and also tuition. We stayed near Pontassieve, at an agritourist winery called I Veroni. A lovely place in a beautiful setup, near the vineyard. And a very good wine. Not to mention the house’s own olive oil. We learnt a lot about olive oil, wine making and a lot more about painting outdoors. One day we spent a few hours in the vineyard, painting bunches of grapes. The weather was particularly hot and almost unbearable. Hence, we abandoned the project after a while, discussed about composition, and about painting outdoor in various weather condition. And we were supposed to finish the painting afterwards. Never got finished, though. Ended up in a pile of unfinished paintings from the workshop. I finished most of them, upon return home, only five paintings left to complete. Just bumped into them not long ago and decided to do them. I started with the bunch of grapes and a still life started on a rainy day. It was a setup with a bottle of the local red wine, a chianti rufina and a glass. I searched everywhere, but couldn’t find any photo of the original setup, so I worked from memory and imagination. I cleaned the surface thoroughly and then applied a thin layer of linseed oil based medium and completed them alla prima using a palette similar to the original one. So, here they are: “A bunch of grapes in the vineyard.” Oil on linen. 20 X 30cm (8” X 12”). “Still life with red wine and grapes.” Oil on linen. 20 X 30cm (8” X 12”).
