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Venice has provided a rich source of inspiration, giving rise to various series: buildings in the Zattere, Arsenale or San Marco; the cypresses of San Michele; the eagle of Burano. Sometimes buildings become abstractions, or are given the merest suggestion of form suffused in mist; at other times, the subject is depicted with alienating clarity, in a manner reminiscent of De Chirico. Much is made of reflection and the ever-changing effect of light on sky and water.
 
Another subject is the Spanish bull-fighting circuit (Montebello spends his summers in Spain). The corrida scenes are painted in real time, the pressures of  plein air painting adding to the drama of the scene. There is nothing sentimental or picturesque; even less of brutality. This daub of brown is the bull. That dab of red is the picador’s banderilla. Imagination fills the gaps.
 
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Teresa Levonian Cole, Inspired by bullfight, obscured by youth, Financial Times, 2-3 August 2003