I keep getting drawn back to this artist. There is a brilliance to the light in his painting that I find compelling. I want to introduce this into my own work. 'View from Pienza' is the closest I have come to achieving that. There is also a fullness to his forms that is produced by an exaggerated use of colour and lighting (these things are essentially the same). The fact that most of his painting is in watercolour and mine in oil makes things doubly difficult. Also, there is a clarity and ease of expressing space. I have set myself a hard task, but that is how it should be
Overall I am encouraged by this recent painting and I don't think it is a coincidence that these ambitions have been raised by using Italy as my backdrop.
I have always held early Italian painting as the yardstick to measure myself against. This is a dangerous game!