In July of 2025 I had a heated discussion with a retired arts dealer. I asked my typical questions about "who decides what is art?" and "who decides how much an art piece costs?". The art dealer`s response was "I do that!"

The answer provoked and frustrated me.

August - October, 2025

Buildings, perspective, details, shadow and light.

23. august 2025 - first attempt

After thinking about this painting thing for a few weeks, and seeing my girlfriend draw a little, I thought I would give it a go. Around the same time, posts from the Portuguese artist Francisco Fonseca started appearing in my social feed, and I got inspired by his paintings of old buildings. I bought a water color set and a few pens. I found a picture I took from Mondovi in Piemonte earlier in the summer with lots of buildings on it. During the process of sketching out the scene, I got too impatient and wanted to see how it looked with colors. I never got to finish it, but I liked the style.

23. august 2025 - second attempt

I wanted to finish a painting, so I tested out painting a door from our village Perinaldo which I managed to finish. Tested adding some shadows and splatterings of paint. The perspective was totally off, but the entire process took just a few minutes. I was hooked.

26. august 2025 - finishing the funicular in Mondovi

I had another attempt at the scene from Mondovi with a focus on perspectives this time. The buildings did not end up looking as good this time, and I left too much ink on the paper. The perspective was also totally off in places. Very limited shadow work.

27. august 2025 - painting our house

It was a nice late summer day and I thought I would have another go at perspective drawing. I got the wall, window and porch dialed in, but the stair case, wheel barrel and rake was off. I was very happy with the tree. Tried some more shading. Starting to look like illustrations in a childrens book now.

1. september 2025 - centro storico in Perinaldo

Off to Italy and Perinaldo. Our village has a ton of fantastic old buildings so it should not be hard to find anything to paint. This is from the church piazza in the historic center of the town. My first attempt at the typical italian building with green shutters and the ligurian color palette. Quite happy with the almost invisible shading and perspective that gave the building some depth.

2. september 2025 - shit did I make this?!

This is the moment where I thought "shit, did I make this???" - the perspective, light, shadows, cold tones, warm tones, buildings and a human figure - everything suddenly came together. This was also the moment I understood how difficult painting people is. Your brain is so incredibly good at recognizing people, and if the proportions or the balance is just a tiny bit off, you will see the error immediately. In this case, the balance of the figure is a little off. To finish off the painting I used a white pen for highlights and reflections.

5. september 2025 - view from the bar

I wanted to test out making a quick pen drawing without sketching with a pencil first. The perspective is totally off and I left too much ink on the paper. But it has some kind of naive quality to it anyway. It makes me happy looking at it. It is also the view from our village bar that I see every morning and afternoon.

6. september 2025 - perspectives gotten right

After messing up the perspectives in the drawing the day before, I thought I would try and do it properly. I sat in place and made a pencil sketch. Took a picture, and went home to finish it. Very happy with the perspective and the shadows in the window sills. The other shadows I messed up.

10. september 2025 - a more cartoony style with perspectives off

I wanted to test out painting a building in a little more cartoonish style with the perspectives deliberately a little bit off. I was very happy with this, but the coloring is not too good - you can clearly see the brush strokes. I would like the coloring to appear a little more random and organic.

17. september 2025 - messing up light and shadow

This scene had such great light, shadow and colors, but I totally missed the mark on this one. I also need to learn how to paint plants. But the coloring of the walls was not too bad.

22. september 2025 - roof tiles, people, shadows and reflections

Allright! I was super happy with this one. I got the shadows more or less correct, painted roof tiles for an hour (crap, a lot), got the human figures placed into the correct perspective with an ok balance and proportions. The ground was wet, and I tried to paint reflections onto the ground - not too bad. I also used a white marker for highlights and reflections. The bike did not look good - have to get back to that.

28. september 2025 - more perspectives and structure on walls

I wanted to see if I could make the walls look more organic with some structure. Quite happy with how the wall coloring and structure turned on. The perspective of the staircase and the shadows on the shutters and the green door was also nice. But again, I put too much ink on the page. I need to get a thinner pen, a brown one.

7. october 2025 - bigger format and more details

Moving away from my sketchbook I wanted to check out bigger formats and more detail. This is an unfinished sketch of the old town of Menton, France. I was happy with the level of detail and the perspective of the buildings. I messed up the front of the church, but it is not really noticable.

8. october 2025 - coloring was a mistake

I added a missing piece and a couple of trees in the top right corner and was very happy with the trees (I can do trees now). However, coloring the scene was a total mistake. It looked a lot better as a black and white pen drawing.

9. october 2025 - painting a leaf in 30 minutes

After spending several days with all those details from Menton, and not being happy after coloring it, I picked up a leaf from the street and painted it. Added a shadow for depth. It took about 30 minutes. Again I thought "did I make this???"

12. october 2025 - messing up light and shadow again!

Inspired by the painting of the leaf a few days earlier and the amazing autumn colors, I wanted to have another go at trying to capture light and shadow. And I totally messed it up again. Yuk! But I liked the tree.

23. october 2025 - and then there was finally light and shadow

A few days earlier I took my mountain bike to the woods between San Romolo and Bajardo. The forest road was totally covered with brown leafs and the light was amazing. I took a photo of my bike and thought I would have another go at capturing the light in a painting. This time it worked. Super happy! The bike also looked ok. And oh, do you see the small shadow underneath the wheels? Without those tiny shadows, the bike was just floating in the air. You can`t fool the brain.