Hello & Welcome!
Two artists tripping the world together like “recycled teenagers” – this was a dream come true in 2007 for Tony and I – & especially for me, since I had never been overseas before beyond Australia & N.Z. We spent a wonderful time in Ireland visiting family – then caught a ferry to Fishguard in Wales, train to London and from there on across the Chunnel to join the Eurail in a loop around Europe, staying in Paris, Torino, Florence, Venice, Zurich, Frankfurt, Brussells and London before flying home via Hong Kong.
My partner, Tony and I both loved Ireland (next Post) and Venice best of all and in Venice like countless others, we fell in love with the picturesque canals reflecting age textured buildings…
the elegant Gondolas handled so ably by the skillful Gondoliers…
Leisurely pedestrian friendly streets (no cars!) full of aged buildings and history…
Countless exotic shops full of colourful masks and Venetian glassware…
and of course, afternoon GELATOS!
In VENICE the sounds were different to everywhere else we visited in Europe. Without the noise and pollution of cars, instead the busy boat traffic conversed through a varied language of muffled toots and horns - from deep authoritative blasts of large liners…
(Above: The “Norwegan Jewel”)
to high pitched repetitive pip-pips of small vessels – all merging with the swish of water flowing in their wake…
Long balmy evenings saw families emerge from afternoon siestas to dine ‘el fresco’ at the numerous restaurants – the children able to play safely without the dangers of road traffic… though of course if you lived there, all children would need to be taught to swim as early as possible with so many waterways honeycombing the city!
Even bicycles were fairly rare, no doubt due to the number of steps involved in crossing the numerous canal bridges in every shape and size imaginable…
It also greatly surprised us that in a city existing so much at salt-water sea level (sometimes below!) green parks with avenues of huge long established trees formed part of the scene…
Another surprising feature was the somewhat alarming lean on many of the buildings & towers! We were told that some of the buildings require flotation to combat the sinking!
Naturally there were countless artists displaying their work for the tourists and people the world over would be familiar with many of the images portrayed…
As Tony and I wandered the less ‘touristy’ back streets and narrow lanes of Venice soaking up the atmosphere, we became more and more entranced by the textures of the buildings and hypnotic reflections in the canals – also of course the wonderful shapes of the gondolas, boats & barges. Literally every corner we turned was “paintable”! It was overwhelming and our cameras and sketch books worked overtime!
I made several attempts at capturing these impressions in paint, but found it difficult to “break new ground” in rendering an individual approach – since these subjects have been painted so often by so many artists throughout history!
Also, our photographs were so wonderful they were a hard act to follow! For example here are a couple of reflection shots I took that really stand best as photos! I wouldn’t attempt to paint them because they are so beautiful just as they are – although I did enjoy enhancing them with Photoshop!
Still, I will share with you here my few painting attempts. Tony did rough sketches but hasn’t developed them yet.
First I did a very quick study to begin to “get in the mood” & tune in to the amazing perspective of the canals. which lend themselves to tall paintings. Getting the angles is tricky so I used my “clock method” (pretending that each line begins with the angle created by the hand of a clock – so I ask myself “what time is that angle?”) This method is fully described in Post 23 on perspective.
My next attempt featured mainly the reflections that fascinated us so much…
Then finally, I tried a favourite semi-abstract approach of mine – bending the lines and playing with the shapes. This at least gave me an individual approach!
Here is the reference photo I took to work from…
The following slideshow shows the stages in developing the painting…
To activate slideshow please click on X at top right hand corner (or ‘view all images’).
Finally here is my painting of the tiny lane where our apartment was located. It looked different every day as various coloured clothing was hung out to dry! Incidentally, although in a very old building, our apartment was newly refurbished and very comfortable.
Below is a photo of Tony leaving our apartment…so you can see where the painting is taken from…
Tony has his shopping bag ready for the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables on a barge in the nearby canal…
So that’s about it from me on Venice. We feel so privileged to have paid a visit there. It was absolutely nothing like our preconceptions and was far more captivating and beautiful…also very clean. The salt water was clear, there was plenty of healthy green weed growing on the pylons and we saw absolutely no rubbish floating in the water.
We would advise anyone visiting however to explore the back streets away from the crowded tourist areas and our only criticism throughout Italy was the lack of public seating available – so wear old clothes and get used to sitting in the gutter or on any available step! Hard surfaces (often cobbled) make for tired legs that do need a rest now and again!
Have you any memories or thoughts to share about Venice? We’d love to hear.
Best wishes to all,
Julie & Tony
