Two Tuscan Cedar Trees

Copyrighted © 2009 by Linda Warner Constantino. 8" by 10" oil on linen board.

I am busy painting scenes of Tuscany for a potential client and couple of shows coming up. I am working from photos as I am no longer in Italy but many of the places I have either sketched or painted or at least spent time in the location. In other words there is a real connection with the subject matter. I find this makes painting from photos so much more viable for me. Also, they are my images not someone else's. As an illustrator I have often worked from what I refer to as "alien" reference. While I learned to make it work for me I was never really comfortable unless I shot my own reference. I have been interspersing the work from photographs with still lifes done from life(which I will post eventually). I do this to keep the connection of working from life viable for me. I am not sure this makes sense to others but for me the direct experience of painting from life is the most fulfilling, and yet there was a time when working from life was utterly terrrifying.Hmm.