Mesmerized by fungi

There is a lot to say about fungi. They are slow, determined decomposers and complex creatures. What we see is only the fruit, all the rest is hidden. They come in all shapes and colours. They can kill or nourish us. This particular one- Auricularia mesenterica- was decorating with colourful frills a chunk of decaying wood, something that was, time ago, a lovely oak. Transformation is the mantra in nature, nothing ever dies forever. It only changes in something else.

sketching common owl, cranes and night heron in Comacchio

Hello, such a long time since I posted anything here.
I hope you had a good start on 2020.
Here are a collection of sketches I did on an outing with friends; I chose a yellowish paper knowing the weather would be gray and misty, and that owls tend to that color.
Pencils, watercolor pastels and an inkbrush were the simple techniques I used.
It was uncomfortably cold and humid, but I like mist and the subdued shades it creates; the dry reeds too were the same color of my paper.

The cranes were in great numbers- 780 counted in a field, many more scattered in the fields that form part of the Park of the Po river Delta. Unfortunately they are very shy and the distance, plus the mist and poor light made it very hard to catch shapes and jizz. They were very busy feeding.
The roost of owls was bang in the centre of the small town of Ostellato. Up to 41 were counted on two pine trees in the garden of a school; they have chosen those trees and stick to them, each owl returning exactly to the same position every morning. It was incredibly easy to focus on them in our telescopes, even too close!

Night herons were on a large willow in one of the ponds, quite visible but also hidden by branches.
A lovely lemon yellow chin, and shades of cool gray will require a fresh drawing on white paper, or will be lost.

Parco della Mandria, Venaria Reale, Turin, Italy

A week end  in a historic park , funded by the former Royal family for raising cattle and horses ,

and as a hunting ground. The first sketch was on a partly covered morning,  the second in a shining afternoon, under lime trees and on the wrong side of the paper! 

Flowers of the dune- Concetta Flore

I was spending a few days of deserved sea-side relax on the Tyrrenean coast of Tuscany, but sun-bathing is ok just for a while. When flowers shine in the sun like this, they are irresistible subjects.
I had to leave it half-way but finished it from a picture and memory.
Happy summer everyone!

Centaurea sphaenocephala, camomilla tomentosa, juniperus oxycedrus, leaves of Medicago sp

Concetta Flore- Swallows on mudbank

Last sunday I was relaxing by the Lake of Bracciano,not very far from Rome (Italy) miserably low since last year's terrible drought. The emerged sand and silt banks have been colonized by vegetation and fauna, and swallows are benefiting from the abundance of bugs and worms. They land and start pecking the moist sand, and fly to the nest with worms dangling from their beaks. Lovely to sit by in the midst of their chirping acrobatics, and let my pencil follow them.

Coloured pebbles- Concetta Flore

Pebbles are lovely. They come from ancient eras, where minerals, melted down by volcanoes, melded into rocks, that were broken by sleet and wind or quakes; they tumbled in the water where , during very long stretches of time, the movement of waves and currents worked at their edges until smoothed in various shapes, and shiny.
I found myself on a multi-colored pebble beach on the Island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast; I sorted out the palette of the different shades and had fun painting them in the hot sun.

Playing around with snails

Apart from their perfect spiralling "house", apart from their interesting reproductive system, apart from their legendary voracity that every gardener knows, snails are quite nice little animals, and very active too. It wasn't so easy to sketch them while they explored the transparent boxes and salad that I provided, let alone describe the intricate patterns on their shell while it changed perspective in  seconds.
When I  set myself to colouring them, I decided to play with colors and the page.
Being a nature painter doesn't mean you have to be too serious about your work,  I believe.
Have fun!

Seychelles,Concetta Flore

Following up Ars et Natura's project on Seychelles' biodiversity, I'm back from the second trip in the lovely- but over-exploited-  archipelago.
Here are some sketches, very few between coordinating, carrying,  and mounting the group exhibition and getting some much needed rest.
More on the Victoria exhibition can be seen on the BLOG.

Wishing you a lovely August.

Cousin Island,a bird sanctuary near Praslin. On the right, a white-tailed tropicbird.

Victoria Botanical gardens

The large palm spider, Nephila aurata

Rose-bush in a magic setting

If you come to Italy and Rome you must check the Giardini di Ninfa in the springtime, if you wish to spend a few hours in a dream.
I had the privilege, together with a group of sketchers, of spending a free afternoon there.
This very ancient rose- whose name I've forgotten-caught my attention.
I drew it in pastel. It was leaning  on an ancient wall of the ruined village, and the bluish shade was the copper oxyde sprayed to protect the plant from parasytes. It contrasted beautifully with the acid yellow of the younger stems.
It's really hard to select a subject in this paradise, imagined and planted lovingly by the lady of the Caetani family.

Wishing everyone a fantastic spring.

Views from Italy

A little town in Central Italy, in Umbria, the same region where Assisi is. The town is called Amelia and we have a small house where we occasionally manage to spend a few days. The view from the windows is enchanting, since they're at the top of the high ramparts that support the buildings, towards the valley . It's a typical position for medieval italian villages to be high up and walled, against invaders. Unfortunately the new towns built outside the walls are more practical and commercial; old, romantic towns are void of life nowadays.

The hills are soft, but limestone rocks emerge from the thick ilex woods.
Down below the town, spring and afternoon light combine in lovely shades.

I had to quit before the wind blew my sketchpad miles away!

Just a branch in the water-Concetta Flore

A walk with some friends at a nature reserve managed by WWF. A hot, sticky day, the birds far on the other shore of the lagoon, only one telescope between all of us to observe the osprey - a rare sight in Italy- and other species like the spoonbill, various herons like the cattle egret, the great white and grey herons, little egret, and a common sandpiper. So I drew what caught my eye- movements of the water around a dead branch, hoping for a kingfisher to poise.

The lemon test- Concetta Flore

After listening to artist Stefano Faravelli talking about how the lemon created a link between Europe and Africa, the origins of its name, the colour yellow, and seeing his beautiful lemon study on black background, I also picked up his suggestion to paint a lemon as a test.

So, today I was outside with one of the last lemons from my tree.

What can I say: it's yellow- also. It reflects sunlight. It has innumerable pores that are influenced by light and create patterns. It's intense, solid. Full of nuances. It's just...difficult. It took me nearly two hours to do the job.

more sketches from NZ- Concetta Flore

An extended page from the moleskine I used in NZ. We were on the Queen Charlotte track, close to Anakiwa, amidst the beautiful tree ferns and manuka/kanuka forest.. A rare sunny day in November...If you'd like to see more, please visit  the post on my blog

Still life in Rome Natural History Museum-Concetta

Out sketching with the sketchcrawl group, foreseeing the wet weather, we were safely snug inside the Museum. I always fall for the small rather than the large, so I ignored elks and elephant skeletons and went along with these two creatures.
No latin names alas, since they were out only to accompany a very interesting exhibition by Hitnes (street artist and, I assure you , a visionary miniaturist too...).
Oh I'm SO slow with the little ones...get something wrong and there's no way back!

later on the same day I delivered a short demo of life sketching of a very dead branchlet of ilex oak. 40 minutes in poor light, well it could have been worse!

A beautiful tree, Concetta Flore

poplar, Tuscany, Italy

I painted this old and tall poplar on the river Albegna, in Tuscany, sitting on a rock and encircled by blue damselflies. The drawing took more than one session and I tried to catch the morning light.
Magnani paper, 20x50cm.

Bird sketches

A few sketches done in a WWF natural reserve near Rome, in May, through my telescope, and coloured at home. Curlew sandpipers, wood sadpipers,  and black-winged stilts. Ah- and a (female) marsh harrier.

When I originally sketched these, I only used graphite pencils. It's hard enough to squint through a telescope and hold a sketchbook, maybe trying to identify a bird on the book, while splashes of rain make you run for shelter from time to time!
So the colours remained in my backpack and the sketches stayed colourless in my book for a while. But I itched to give them some body and setting. So I found time and will after a couple of weeks from the actual observation. If you wish to compare, I've posted both versions ( and latin names of birds) to my blog Conci's colours.
For me it's like a little miracle every time I can bring back to life something that I've observed, and colour helps so much, though you can do excellent work without.
Pencil scans very poorly- at least on my scanner- so the effect on the web is altered by contrasting it and making it look blacker that graphite actually is- it loses its grey warmth that's so pleasant.

live sketches from Namibia-Concetta Flore

Hello! A week ago I flew back from a trip to Namibia, my first experience of Africa and the desert. A heavy schedule, dry winter season, early sundown, pitch dark cold nights with beautiful, different stars...The long hours spent sitting in the car speeding across dry savannah and deserts have left me with the longing for more time to stop, absorb, learn more. But anyway, when I could, I did sketch. Here are a few samples: the dunes of the Namib desert, beautiful shades of rusty red and dark, blue-gray shadows; the seals in Cape Cross; elephants and rhinos at the Etosha lodge waterholes (more like sitting at theatre than being out there...)...You'll find more details on my blog,check it now and in the next days if you like.

about shrikes:Lanius collurio-Concetta Flore

Quite a few years ago, I was out sketching in the mountainous region of Abruzzo (I've mentioned in other posts) and got the opportunity of observing a red-backed shrike poised on a bramble. He was at ease and stayed there for all the time I needed. I can't remember if I had my telescope or only my binoculars, but anyway I caught him looking in different directions.
Shrikes have this habit, luckily, of flying always back to their favourite branch unless something disturbs them.
 The butterfly must have come later in the day (sorry, I can't identify it!)
So, seeing other shrikes posted here, I remembered this sketch and thought of joining in the theme.

Sketchy watercolours-Concetta Flore

Yesterday WWF Italy  was celebrating "sanctuary day" and opening its sanctuaries  all over the country.
I was in Corchiano, near the Pian Sant'Angelo sanctuary.
Little time between walks, so here are the two watercolours I produced.
The first one was comfortably made under a dazzling sun, on a terrace overlooking a dramatic canyon created by the now modest river throughout the millennia.
The second one, on a tiny sketchbook, I made without  a pencil outline, directly in colours, by the sunlit waterfalls down below. Lovely colours and the play of shades and sun attracted me, along with the movement of the churning water.

driftwood sculptures-Concetta Flore

There is a beach in Tuscan region of Maremma, where big pine tree trunks are scattered about, bleached by the sun, scorched to the bone by the sea. The place is called "Skeleton beach" and people have the tradition of standing up the trunks like totems, when feasible, or buiding teepees or other creative compositions with them. Its fun to see how they acquire a new position and, therefore, a meaning. Sometimes its truly fascinating how casual and intentional compositions bond together.
The first watercolour was done near sunset; the second was a charcoal sketch that I coloured later. I think the contorted root attracted my upset mind, since I'd just busted my camera, for good. Sand...is dangerous!