il Pettirosso
20x20cm
Original oil on box canvas
 Please note: This original oil painting will be dispatched after 26th October to allow the paint time to fully dry.
A little robin often appears while I am working in our olive grove 
in Tuscany, hopping close by and settling for a while as I work.
 
il Pettirosso, Italian for the robin grew from one of those little encounters.
Perched on an old chair amongst the olive trees, with a hilltop village glimpsed beyond, he became the focus of this small expressive painting.
 
There is something wonderfully symbolic about both the empty 
chair and the robin.
The chair suggests a place to pause, to sit and simply be, while the robin brings a sense of companionship, hope and the quiet continuity 
of nature.
Together, they seem to say something about belonging, returning
and finding stillness in a familiar place.
 
Originally begun as a simple demonstration painting of a chair, I returned to the canvas and allowed it to become something different.
Layering in the colours, marks and memories of a place that has become very special to me.
 
Loose, joyful and full of movement, il Pettirosso is less about recording a view and more about capturing the feeling of being there.