Fucecchio marchland

Some time ago I made this sketch of landscape in Fucecchio marshland (Marshes of Fucecchio), a very important wetland just declared Ramsar...At this time plenty of rain transformed it in a great lake and there is not chance to get inside even by boat...
This a my little tribute to this part of paradise...

Also, at the New Visit Centre is till in progress my exhibition in a place that I'm expecting (and I hope) will become an important exhibition center for italian wildlife painters....

Kestrel on Elba Island (Italy)

I spent few days in Monte Serra upon the Elba Island looking for bird migration, unfortunately the weather was bad, but some birds of pray were flying catching around our position...
Kestrel where very closed to us....

Maremma's grassland

Long time ago I made this painting, like a present for the marriage of a dear friend, he was coming back to Nord Tuscany from Maremma and I was very happy to give them something to remember recent past...I took a photo of it just few days ago, to remember me that I've done it!

Seen! Kestrel on the tower of the castle ....

A few days ago around the  Montalbano Mountain (for ornithological surveys) I began to scrutinize steeples, towers and roofs of old farmhouses, and ruins in search of blue rock thrush but I haven't found it; attracted by the white droppings on the walls of a castle's tower, I found a nest of kestrels; it was up there almost hidden by the color of the mimetic plumage, stood out in contrast to the stones, without binoculars I wouldn't have been able to see it .... painted later by some photos I tried to visualize the scene in different angle of view.

Primerose, trasferred to digital...

Every time I need to make the transfer of my drawing through the scanner I feel bad, always for the same problem...even now that I use a camera: colors became different to the original...then I've to use my pc to find an acceptable solution...
.....and You?

Great-tit in my garden, in water mixable oil color

After a very long time, about twenty-five years, I bought again some oil colors; I left before in their box because of solvent turpentine,... but now these new oil colors are ... oil-watercolors (water mixable oil color)! Not easy to use, especially for me that I have used acrylics for long time. I tried with this great tit on sunflower, starting slowly unpretentious and I must say that I enjoyed ....
This is not a really a sketch, but a quick paint...:-)

Sketches from Tatras Valleys

Here are finally some drawings, made following the last summer trip in Tatra, Slovakia.
A peaceful journey through various regions of Eastern Europe where we found some species of plants and animals, including domestic, exclusive of those places ...

See other sketches here

Alessandro Sacchetti - Wildlife Painter: Sketches from Tatras Valleys

Starling on the "Dottato" fig tree

Starling on the Dottato fig tree, 30x40 cm

I finished some new paintings for the exhibition still in progress in Lastra a Signa.
Every day I see the fig tree Dottato from the studio window and see the starlings, from late September to participate in this our generous table; we collect the fruits from the bottom and the birds on the tips, the apical branches. The light is strong among the branches, but the eye gets used more than the camera and with painting the light effect can be offset, however, trying to maintain the force. Starling moult in this season completely so that young adults are not recognizable, but both shine with their reflection ...

Workshop on naturalistic drawing

Aggiungi didascalia

Short excursion under the rain  to the Observatory of the Morette, Marshes of Fucecchio, sketch of landscape designed by the slits ...

Workshop in Fucecchio Marsh, different points of view of the German model, positioned among the students. Really not a simple exercise...

An olive tree for Trisomy 21

Last Sunday I attended with great satisfaction on a ex-tempore painting competition  in Malmantile (small medieval village near Florence), which was intended to sensitize and collect funds in favor of Trisomy 21 (an initiative promoted by the local Leonardo Alderighi Ass) ... This was a real contest of painting and drawing offhand which was attended by a handful of intrepid artists who, overcome a reluctance for the bad weather of recent days, came together for this small competition.
The proceeds from the sale of paintings will be donated to the association. Some villagers and tourists went away with a painting under his arm! The paintings will soon be exposed by the municipality of Lastra, in a suitable space in the capital.

http://sandrosacchetti.blogspot.it/2012/04/trisomia-21-su-pe-poggi-con-i-pennello.html

3D scketch (again...)

 Do you think we can consider this one as a scketch? As with pencil I began to mold plastiline directly without any preparative and than I added some materials as drawing and something will be taken away;  I am very enjoied for this job and I get money too!
They are part of a project made for blind people (or partially sighted) and I am really very happy to partecipate...

 Finished, ready for the mould

 Finished, ready for the mould

Painting in 3D...small thinks

Painting in 3D...small thinks:  Funghi....impastati per gioco con un materiale estremamente leggero e malleabile, colorati in acrilico...gradi possibilità espressive
 :-)...Mushrooms ....I've played to knead with an extremely lightweight and ductile material, colored in acrylic ... great expressive possibilities :-)

A different kind of sketching, I've made it very quickly without thinking, but I had to wait before painting also without to much precision, but enough inaccurancy for a natural effect...a very nice play!

My insect at the Oasis magazine competition

This year Oasis magazine organized a competition of nature paintings, and for the occasion I sended some paintings. One of these has been rewarded: "aquatic insects" has been drawed in the same board but with different painting techniques. The butterfly Zerynthia polyxena and is feeding plant is maden in watercolor; Hydrous piceus and  Dytiscus marginalis (male and female) is a mixed with watercolor and gouache in overlapping layers. I am very happy of this occasion especially becouse this work will take a tour around with a dedicated exibition.....Alessandro Sacchetti - Wildlife Painter: I miei disegni per il concorso di Oasis

Some finches out of the window

At last this winter becomes very very cold and snowy, and  brings me at the studio's window some new rarities for my garden...Nature is very hard out the window especially this year when cold was unespected...

I still dont know when i have to use watercolor, but not in this case... I think.


Hawfinch, Great tit, Long tailed tit attracted by the feeders, with black sunflower seeds.

Collared dove sketches from the window, singing from the garden as in springtime, first drawing of the year :-)







see also here to enlarge
http://sandrosacchetti.blogspot.com/2012/01/tortora-dal-collare.html

Flamingos in the Osmannoro marshes - A reported painting

This is the best time for delivery of the paintings booked, but I am happy they will go to a good friend of mine....
The history of this painting is very simple: flamingos seen last fall in Osmannoro marshes, one of the few times that occur in the plain of Florence, where incredibly, despite the degradation of this area they show up every year .... Let's go back to painting, that day there were many photographer friends attracted by the beauty of these birds, especially those in favorable light, the dark background of vegetation. I also took photos with the camera... and heart. With the camera I picked the color pink and the dark background that accentuates the contrast; with heart I drew the white plumage of many different colors, the ones that I have remained inside and  before they disperse from my mind....

Best wishes assembled drawing

My graphic soul plays every year to assemble on pc drawings for friends, to reach them from far, this is my little present for this year
Ciao
Sandro

.... and crested tits

And this was the study of the crested tits made for the composition of  "the great beech and crested tits".
Now I'm going to color it...:-)

Dipper drawing on old paper

http://sandrosacchetti.blogspot.com/2011/12/ho-lavorato-questi-disegni-di-merlo.html

the great beech and crested tits

You might think of a simple composition, and in part it is, but hides a little story that led me to a "daring" settlement: Crested Tit and beechnuts in the foreground and the background the great tree. With friends we went to walk up to this impressive and famous century-old plant, with ears alert to the birds sound, but not content with having only heard in the distance the calls of these tits, rare in Tuscany, I  tried to attract them with their sound registered in my phone. Well, the tits came over our heads and maybe even a little irritated by our artificial calls, leaving the indelible image of this moment that I tried to represent ...