Scribbling .. and connecting with Cy Twombly

I had fun recently, scribbling away, testing pens, felt tips, coloured pencils, some of dubious quality,  and sharpening pencils at record breaking speed with  my newly acquired battery  powered sharpener.

A couple of sheets of satisfying  scribble  resulted.

A friend had mentioned the American artist Cy Twombly, whose work is,  to be polite, beyond my understanding  and  I commented  that this may be how he made some of  his work.  But joking apart, I recalled reading that he had lived for periods of time in Italy in a small town called Bassano in Teverina, an hour or so away from Rome where we spent a holiday, 7 years ago, staying  in a very old house full of character.  I  tried at that time  to find out where it was that Cy Twombly  had been living, but I never knew found out exactly where, or indeed if he had ever lived there.  But now, with  time to look back at photos, sketch books etc, and doing  a bit of research with a view to appreciating  his work, as some obviously do,  I finally located a photo of the Palazzo which he had owned and renovated, and where he produced  a lot of his work, some of which I have found a little more interesting, and possibly even inspiring. The massive old building looked familiar, and we had indeed passed it on walks.

We'd been given use of  a swimming pool in a  large garden, which was  a  20 minute walk from the house where we were staying, descending the cobbled streets of the town and meandering along pine tree lined paths. I spent a couple of afternoons sketching and painting the scene from the poolside but I didn't know then  that I had unwittingly drawn the back view of Cy's house - with its three arched tower.  This  revelation is almost as exciting to me  as my newly discovered electric sharpener. 
I'm no closer in understanding his work but for some reason am now becoming more intrigued by it and I feel it may lead me to explore different ways of working,but hopefully something other than  just  scribbling!

Bassano in Teverina

Paintings by Winslow Homer - also on stamps

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a  book called Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton - I'm very keen on swimming - and go to my local pool several times a week. It tells the story of Leanne's attempt to be selected for the Canadian Olympic teams of 1988 and 1992,  and although not successful, she retains a lifelong love and interest in swimming. As well as a fascinating and well told account of her experiences she is a talented artist and includes several series of illustrations connected with everything to do with the sport, from portraits of fellow swimmers to photographs of her costumes, and small paintings of swimming pools all over the world. And she also includes some art references, which I personally can never resist looking up!   I've discovered several paintings new to me, by the American artist Winslow Homer, whose former home Leanne was lucky enough to stay in on a visit to Maine.

Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer (1899) 

Sharks, The Derelict by Winslow Homer 

I'm not likely to ever own an original Winslow Homer, but as a stamp collector, I have a smaller example in my own collection - not quite as sinister as the first two shown above, this one is called Breezing Up( A Fair Wind) 1873-1876 - the stamp was issued by US Postal service in 1962!