Tanaro I is the first painting of Anno Tanaro. It is the June painting.
Anno Tanaro is a year I am spending with one point of the Tanaro, the river close to my studio in the Val Tanaro. Once a month, from June 2026 to May 2027, I go back to the exact same spot and paint what is in front of me: twelve visits, twelve paintings, one place. I stand in the same position every time, I use the same 60×80 canvas, I work in the same light, so that nothing changes except the year itself, the water as it rises and falls, the stones when the river uncovers them, the trees, the snow when it finally comes.
This first one is early summer. The water is full, the banks are deep green, the light stays long into the evening. June is the open month, before the heat and before everything the year will do to the river, and I wanted to begin there, with the place at its calmest.
I paint it with my fingers, in oil, straight onto the cotton, no brushes, so there is nothing between my hand and the place, and the surface keeps the pressure of each fingertip. The place stays still, and the year moves through it. Tanaro I is where that year begins.
