Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 27. Door, Chiesetta No.2, Barga, Tuscany

Without moving from the lunch table on the terrace where we had enjoyed a light insalata and a chilled, local pinot grigio, I perched my sketchbook on my knee and drew the back door of  of the casa. Got carried away...

The house was built halfway through the 18th century but I don't know whether the door is that old and nobody knows who or what 'N.G' was. 

They don't make doors like this in New Zealand; I would have liked to have brought it home with me in my cabin luggage!

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz    www.don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 26. Another View Of Chiesetta, Barga, Tuscany

Having done a watercolour of the house from beside the piscina, I quickly did this pen sketch because, hearing some falcons mewing in the sky above me, I was inspired to write a lyrical, illustrated article.

This drawing done, I started to write on the same paper, and this shows part of the essay, which covered several pages and was subsequently published by the Wellington Evening Post back in New Zealand.

Our bedroom was on the upper floor, the one with the shutters closed.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz    www.don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 25. Chiesetta No. 2, Barga, Tuscany, Watercolour

I sat by the swimming pool and did this daub of the upper house called Chiesetta No.2. It's so wonderfully Italian that it could exist nowhere else in the world.

A historic casa it stood on the Gothic Line in World War Two, one of Hitler's lines of last retreat as the Germans slowly lost the war. Our relatives found bullet holes and ammunition as they were restoring the house. Now, surrounded by chestnut covered slopes it is so peaceful that one could hardly imagine such a cruel history.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz    www.don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 24. Chiesetta Numero Due, Barga, Tuscany. Black and White

In Italian, Chiesetta means 'little church'. This house, No. 2, which belongs to our relatives, stands near a tiny two-person wayside prayer kiosk on an ancient mule road on the slopes of the Apennines.

I sketched it a number of times (more in later posts) but this rendering, done from below the slopes where olives, vines and raspberries grow, shows the whole, two-part casa. The main house is to the left. The smaller house was once used for animals but has been converted into living accommodation.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz    www.don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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