Abandoned Village of Bargecchia

17.5 x 24.5cm
Helen Bellany
£250

2019

Watercolour on paper

In the 1980s, the artist and her husband (John Bellany 1942-2013), now married to each other for the second time,  found a base in the Garfagnana region of Italy from which to work and travel:

‘… there was the backdrop of rugged mountains, grassy hillsides with old stone dwellings perched on rocky ledges, wave upon wave of wooded slopes stretching far into the distance. There were the medieval walled hill villages crowned by their ancient churches and campanile all around us, softly illuminated by night; the green valley of the river Serchio far below us . . . the eagles hovering and coasting above us as we looked across to the abandoned village on the crest of the opposite hillside.’

– from The Restless Wave: My Two Lives with John Bellany (Sandstone Press, 2018), available direct from the publisher or from your local independent bookshop