Tanaro IV is the fourth painting of Anno Tanaro. It is the September 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 is the same place a month on. The sky is clear, with one small cloud. On the right, yellow and orange show through the green of the hillside. The stones in the river are lit, and the foreground sits in deep blue shadow.
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.
