The ear of Dionysius, Syracuse
In May 2023 we finally got to go to Sicily after our planned trip in 2020 was cancelled. We took the opportunity to visit Syracuse and in the archaeological park there found this wonderful cave. Apparently the slaves who built the original city were housed in this cave. I can’t imagine how spooky it must have been for them. The point where I stood to take the photo on which this painting is based is deep inside where no light enters and mobile phone torches barely penetrate.
Oil on canvas, 40 x 30cms, 2023
Original for sale, framed, £120
Alps from Lake Como
There’s nothing like travelling around Lake Como by boat. it offers up such amazing vistas. The photo this painting is based on was taken about half way up the lake. I loved how the sunlight licks the far distant Alps and the tempestuous looking clouds that hover behind.
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50cms, 2020
Original for sale, £145
Brooding hills over Lake Como
This is another painting based on a photo taken from a boat. It shows the point where Lake Como splits into two arms and the hills that seem to brood so heavily over one of those arms. I used a cloudy glaze to enhance the broodiness and get the colours to fade in the distance.
Oil on canvas, 40 x 50cms, 2020
SOLD
Lake Como
This is a painting of a point in Lake Como where the boats turn round as evidenced by the trail in the water. The lake was the most amazing colour blue that day and I couldn’t resist painting it, especially as it contrasted so much with the rather forbidding hills in the background.
Oil on canvas, 50 x 60cms, 2020
Original for sale, £175
View from Villa Balbianello
Villa Balbianello sits on a promontory that juts out of the lake just beside the town of Lenno. It’s an amazing building which features in the Empire Strikes Back and can be rented out for swish weddings! I couldn’t resist painting this view not least because it looked like a tropical island scene. The fronds on the palm were great fun to paint and made a pleasant change from the more freehand foliage elsewhere.
Oil on canvas, A2 sized, 2020
Original for sale, £145
The Gardens of Villa Carlotta
The gardens at Villa Carlotta on Lake Como are world famous and definitely worth a visit. There are different regions and the photo on which this painting was based was in the more tropical zone. I loved painting the palm fronds and also the different coloured tree trunks. I can’t remember if there was a stream at the bottom of the ghyll here but I feel there should have been.
Oil on canvas, 50 x 40cms, 2019
SOLD