Oggi è il primo giorno al scuola d’arte!

The Accademia del Giglio is nearby. Giglio is the flower symbol of Florence. It looks like a fleur-de-lis and usually the word is translated as lily but I have heard some insist it is an iris, not lily.

The Accademia is in a building near the Bargello. It’s the brown door with the only indication of the Accademia being on the buzzer.

I’m taking a course this week called Sketchbook Florence, then next week, City Landscape. For this week, the plan is to be working from different locations in Florence.

The group walked to Piazza Santo Spirito with our instructor, Michele Reschini (check out his art on instagram: michelereschini_art), who brought the materials and small folding chairs.

The group is five women, including me. Two women from England, one young woman from Australia and one woman, originally from Florida, but who has been living near Florence for the past four years. She has taken this course three times before as she found it’s addictive.

This was my first view to sketch:

After some instruction, I started with pencil and then moved on to watercolour. I focussed on the church of Santo Spirito, designed by Brunelleschi. I think it is the only Renaissance designed church in Florence. All the biggies, Santa Croce, the Duomo and Santa Maria Novella, are medieval buildings with facades added later and of those, only Santa Maria Novella has a Renaissance facade; the others are much later.

I brought lunch as we have a short lunch break. It was too short a break for me to go into Santo Spirito before we moved to the bank of the Arno river, west of the Amerigo Vespucci bridge, which is as far west as I have ever been in Florence—on foot.

It’s near part of the old city walls and the gate called Santa Rosa.

This was the view I worked on. I think the building is Villa Favard.

I was visited by a yellow ladybug.

I’ve never tried working with just pencil and watercolour. I didn’t like the results, but I’m learning. Sketched and painted for over 6 hours. And the inaccurate step counter on my phone says I got over 10,000 steps. I was hot although I sat in the shade the entire time but it got to 27. It was tiring but engaging.