Spain-Rome Sketchbook

In 2008 I went on an oil painting holiday to Spain. A group of Canadians along with our instructor David Goatley spent 12 days at El Molino, a converted mill and bakery come guest house painting en plain air with oils. The advantage of staying in one place out in the country for such a long time is that there is plenty of time to concentrate on sketching and painting.

I started this 8 1/5" x 12" watercolour sketchbook in Spain and finished the 24 paintings from photographs once I returned home. I used fine-tipped black pens, graphite and watercolour pencils, pan watercolour paints and acrylic paints in this project.

As well as painting on location around the mill, we made excursions to the hill-top town of Iznajar.

We made another day trip to Ronda, an ancient town on an escarpment spanned by several bridges.

The highlight of the trip was a chance to tour the fortress El Hambra near Granada.

On the return trip home I stopped over in Rome and walked the street of the ancient city centre for two days.