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, we go to the exact same spot and photograph it from the same position, as near the first of the month as the weather allows, and I paint it from that reference: twelve visits, twelve paintings, one place. I use the same 60×80 canvas every time, 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 canvas, 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.
