Series
Italy Watercolours
Context
Travel study
Discipline
Watercolour on paper
Location
Matera, Italy
Urban observation
STONE, LIGHT AND SHADOW
Matera reduced to a clear atmospheric structure
Matera’s architecture seems to grow from the landscape. In this watercolour, buildings, steps and rock are treated as one connected mass rather than a collection of separate details.
The painting depends on the contrast between sunlit stone and deeper passages of shadow. Figures and small accents provide scale, but the larger subject is the way light moves across the city’s dense surfaces.
SIMPLIFYING A COMPLEX PLACE
Large shapes first, selective detail last
The challenge was deciding what could be left out. Washes establish the dominant value pattern and atmosphere, allowing edges to disappear in some areas while sharper drawing brings attention back to the focal passages.
LIGHT REVEALS THE CITY BY HIDING PARTS OF IT.
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