warm-up painting

This was the first day I had time to setup my paints and start working on re-creating the Tuscan landscape. I considered it a "warm-up" (and still a work in progress - in the morning I may add a few details into the distant mountains) which should help me loosen up for when I do a larger 22" x 30" version. My focus was more on creating geometric impressions and less on accurate details.

"View from San Gimignano", watercolor, 18" x 20"

The reason I haven't yet focused on my paints is because I have been focusing on the beautiful photographs we took while in Italy. I created a photo album using iphoto software which led me to creating a slideshow (Apple makes everything so easy). The first version I made was 8:26 minutes (this morning I decided it was too long!) and this is the shorter, higher resolution version...