Florence Street Scene

I was inspired to do this Florence street scene, because Borromini Bear (who went museum sketching with me) told me about this blog where they are painting a different city each month from Google Maps Street View. It seemed like a good idea to draw something different instead of going through my photos again and again as I have done since I started Kate Johnston’s Watercolour Pencil Class.

This street is in the Oltrarno area of Florence. It goes from the Ponte Vecchio down past the Pitti Palace.  Last time I was there was in July and Florence  was packed solid with tourists. To get away from the hordes we crossed the river and went to the Pitti Palace and walked around the small streets where many artisans (printmakers, shoemakers, etc) have their studios. Far more interesting than standing in queues to see the David again.

In the past year I have discovered the books of  Magdalen Nabb . These are detective mysteries. The hero is Marshal Guarnaccia, a member of the carabinieri, whose ‘police station’ is in the Pitti Palace. The Marshal doesn’t seem the brightest, and he’s Sicilian, doesn’t fit in Florence, and looks at it with an outsider’s eye, which I find very interesting. So I took Google’s little yellow man for a walk around those streets, to get the atmosphere.  I looked first at Sdrucciolo de’ Pitti which has the most marvellous name and is mentioned often in the books. I realised that I walked all around there, but I chose another view, because I wanted somewhere that was more open. Of course I was so busy with the course that I missed the end of June for the Virtual Paintout blog, and now it’s Barcelona. That’ll be my next drawing.