An Afternoon in the olive grove

This afternoon I packed a new pochade box, a handful of oil paints and wandered into the olive grove.

The grove, in Chianni, Tuscany, was quiet. Beyond the olive trees, the countryside stretched away in layers of ochre fields, distant hills and soft blue skies.

Painting outdoors has a way of making you look differently. The light shifts constantly, colours change and there is always far more to paint than can ever fit onto a small panel.

What interested me wasn’t every tree or field boundary, but the feeling of the place itself: silvery olive leaves catching the light, the warmth of the land and the view unfolding through the branches towards the valley beyond.

Over the course of the afternoon, a small oil study began to emerge.

It isn’t intended as a detailed record of the landscape, but rather a response to an afternoon spent amongst the olive trees.

As I packed away the pochade box and made my way home, I found myself already wondering where I might set up next.

Perhaps this will be the first of many.