Yesterday I went outside to paint after quite a long pause. I’ve been painting indoors from photographs that I took in Berlin. My main objective in the Berlin series is to work as quickly as I can. This prevents me from being precious about the details that I can study from a photograph. It has been very productive and I think the painting remain fresh and are not overworked like some paintings that are obviously painted from photos.
I went to the new architectural museum in Rome called Maxxi but I couldn’t paint there as they have enclosed the entire structure behind gates which keep you from viewing the building from outside. Since it was closed at 6 am in the morning, I couldn’t enter. So I decided to go to nearby Flaminio Square.
There is a nineteen century building flanked by several older buildings in front of the ancient Aurelian wall. I’ve always liked the space that this square creates although once you step through the gates of the wall onto Piazza del Popolo, you forget immediately about Piazzale Flaminio. The other disturbing thing about the square is that it has become a major transport hub with trams, buses, underground and automobile traffic constantly impacting the space.
It was nice to work outdoors again but I felt that my practice with the photos has slowed my reactions a bit. I felt that I couldn’t capture the quickly moving light as well as I should. There was a lot of cloud movement in the sky and it actually rained a little before the sun came shining through.
