2026 in Pisticci…..cold day….

I was just about to start painting when the courier called me and asked to meet him in the piazza San rocco.

I hadn’t realised that it was so cold until I went outside. Compared to Scotland it was probably quite mild, but my hands were freezing for the first time this winter. I forgot that last year at this time I was in Scotland waiting to get my eyes operated on. ( Hurray for Katy’s central heating.)

It’s been about 15C inside all day so I thought I’d better heat things up and lit the pellet stove. Naturally this was the first day when it beeped at me and I had to start over again. However it’s now 17C in the coldest corner.

I was working on the portrait again this morning and I think I’ve reached 80%. I’ll leave it for a couple of days and then fix anything that I notice.

The next portrait is drawn and ready to paint. It’s a very young baby and there’s a close up of a hand. More hand practice for me.

I found some old portraits of my family on Facebook memories. They were done before 2015.