Venice Again

The opportunity to head for Venice happens every now and then, when life stops getting in the way and so it was that, earlier in the month, Sheila and I managed to get a week away.

Whilst not totally a painting trip, Mrs. C likes to do lots of other things besides watching me paint, I did manage to make oil sketches on every day that we were there. I call these sketches as they were done quickly as a means of gleaning information for studio work back home. A couple of early morning forays yielded the most interesting light conditions. one a really colourful sky and the other a soft light prior to some rain.

Surprises abound, not only in the discovery of new corners and meeting new people. One of the latter was a pleasant bit of fortune that had us meeting the wonderful watercolourist, Judi Whitton. Judi has just produced a book titled, "Painting Venice'. On discovering this I contacted her to order a copy, to find that she and her husband, Peter, were also in Venice. We arranged to meet and had a charming morning discussing the city and its joys for the painter. My friend Peter Ward has a review of the book on his blog, watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com

Pete and Judi Whitton

San Giorgio Maggiore - oil on gesso board 7" x 5"

Accademia View misty morning - oil on gesso board 7" x 5"

As ever, the city delighted and we headed home mentally preparing arrangements for our next visit.

Salute Sunset - Finished?

First of all, a big thanks to all of you who made suggestions for my next stab at this and I have tried to incorporate them into my reworking. The main things for me were to increase the value range and try to retain some hint of colour in the shadow side of the buildings. I also tried to create some shadow in front of the buildings. It still needs one or two touches but I think it's almost at a finish.

I have sketch books full of work I've done in Venice and I may spend a bit of time over the next month or so working some of them up into finished paintings.

Salute Sunset - Oil on stretched linen 16" x 12"

St. Mark's Again

I'm still playing around with ways of making images that are looser than I used to and this weekend returned to a subject that I've looked at before. My sketchbook from Venice is a continuing source of inspiration for more paintings and this effort is a development of a piece I posted here some weeks ago.

St. Mark's Basilica - Watercolour on Rough paper 16" x 12"

Working from Sketches

When travelling, I make sketches and notes and some may remember I posted some pages from my watercolour sketch book on my return from Venice. One of the sketches was of this interesting church in Cannaregio.

I decided it was about time I tried to work something up from that sketch. The result is here. I did try to retain some of the freshness of the sketch but pay a little more regard to the value relationships. I'm not sure I've got those quite right as some of the shadows aren't strong enough. However, it still has some feeling of light so I can't complain too much.

Madonna dell Orto - Watercolour on Not paper 12" x 9"

Venice - Part2

Some further pages from my Venice sketchbook. As I said in my previous post the weather in Venice during my stay was changeable in that it varied between rain and fine sunshine so panting opportunities had to be taken when they came up. This was one reason why I abandoned the oils early in the week. Using them meant carrying a much bigger load of equipment whilst the watercolour sketchbook is light as is the accompanying paint box. Using them meant I could move about rapidly and get down some images and notes that I can use for painting now that I'm home. Before leaving the subject of oil paint, I made the mistake of taking Underpainting White as a quick drying alternative to my more usual whites. The mistake was not trying it out prior to leaving. I found it very difficult to work and whilst it did dry quickly it didn't provide the sort of result that I like. Try before risking spoiling a week with unfamiliar materials will be my watchwords in future.

On the Salute steps - Watercolour on Not paper

Pescaria - Watercolour on Not paper

Fondamento Barbariga - Watercolour on Not paper

San Marco - Watercolour on Not paper

Madonna dell Orto - Watercolour on Not paper

I could write a lot more about my trip but I'm running out of time before a trip to Ireland for a music festival so I'll have to save my further thoughts till I return.

Break in Venice - Part 1

As reported a couple of weeks ago I had managed to organise a break in the beautiful city of Venice with the express purpose of working on my painting and it turned out to be a fascinating experience and instructive as far as my painting pretensions go.

The planning for the trip involved a week of anticipation while I worked out how to transport all of the gear that would allow me to paint in oils and watercolour, not an easy task given the restrictions on luggage. I think at this stage I should say that my aspirations for the trip were just a bit over ambitious, hoping to make pictures in both mediums and in significant numbers. More of that later.

I arrived in Venice at lunchtime last Thursday and found my way to my lodging for the week. These were  a five minute walk from Piazzale Roma and very easy to find. The accommodation was beautiful and I have to thank artist Michael Richardson for alerting me to the existence of this establishment. The house is owned by an English expatriate, Nicholas Blair-Fish, and he provides a bed and breakfast service in his lovely home. After emptying the luggage I headed out to get a feel for the city that I hadn't visited for about four years in the hope of clarifying my mind about possible painting venues. In Venice that's an almost impossible task as it's actually harder to find things that are not worth painting. Every corner presents a new view that entrances. Therein lies the first difficulty, making decisions about venues. Almost inevitably one gets drawn to some of the well known spots and views. That can be a mixed blessing as I hope to explain.

My first picture here was the view from my bedroom window, sketched on a day when the changeable weather was giving us a mix of rain and sunshine.

 Fondamenta Gaffaro - Watercolour on Not paper

I was keen to attempt some oil painting on my trip and headed out after a night's sleep to try my hand at translating my plein air experience at home into a means of rendering the city. As part of my preparation for the trip I'd spent some time watching videos of Ken Howard at work in Venice. The facility with which he goes about his business is deceptive and maybe persuaded me that I might at least work as quickly. I was to be mistaken, my rate of paint application cannot live up to the standards of speed exhibited by some never mind being able to emulate the accuracy of line and value of the best.

The next two pictures are oil sketches, not completed, one made at one of the more famous views and the other a detail from somewhere less celebrated. The view of the Salute was my first effort and it was not sensible to make that the first picture of the trip. The subject is difficult and would have been better left until I'd got my eye in. Consequently my over enthusiasm in attempting this subject early resulted in a poorly drawn and executed image. A bump to the confidence that gave me food for thought. It did in fact result in me trying a less daunting view when I took out the oils on the following day.

Campo Santa Margherita - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Santa Maria della Salute - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

The experiences of my first two days made me reassess my objectives for the week and I'll return to that issue in my next post.

A Little bit of Excitement

Or maybe a big bit of excitement. Sheila and her college friends are in the habit of taking a holiday together and after sitting down to consider what I might do in her absence it seemed to me to make sense to get away myself. That decided it only remained to decide on where to go. A trawl around the web sites of the budget air lines informed me that I could fly to Venice for a modest fee. It just remained for me to find some reasonably priced accommodation and the trip became a real possibility. I remembered another painter recommending a place to stay and a quick phone call established availability and cost that rapidly became a booking. So I'm off to Venice for a week with bushes and paints.

Venice is obviously a mecca for painters and some would say overdone by the artistic community but for me it's a place that is impossible to tire of. My visits there in the past have just reinforced my urge to return. On previous visits, since starting to paint, I've had little time to devote to my art so a concerted week's work is a real bonus.

The next job is to select the kit to take with me, check my stocks and sort out any necessary purchases.

Having organised the trip I dug out my photographs from my last visit and got a sudden urge to do a quick watercolour sketch. The result is below.

San Giorgio Maggiore - Watercolour on Not paper 14" x 11"

February Project

Another shared project with Peter Ward (watercolourfanatic@blogspot.com).

This is a picture from a trip to Venice a couple of years ago. It's a view back to the Bridge of Sighs and the spot where most of the tourists gather to view it. Recommended it's less crowded.

I chose this as it presents a lot of different problems. perspective, recession and water just being three of the more obvious ones.

Bridge of Sighs - Photograph

Not an easy piece and as usual it bears a litany of deficiencies but it was another day at the brushes. On to the next challenge.

Bridge of Sighs - Watercolour on Rough paper 14" x 11"

Exercises

Not a lot of time this week so I decided to keep going by trying a couple of exercises. The first one is something I promised my friend Dan Corey that I'd be having a go at some time soon. The object of the exercise was to observe the range of values in an object and render them in monochrome. Value recognition and rendition are at the heart of producing convincing images in paint and concentration on colour often have one forgetting the importance of values.

To do this I first of all mixed a range of greys so that I had them to hand and could concentrate on observation. The concentration required was intense and I was totally absorbed maybe to the point of convincing myself that there were value shifts that weren't there.

As an aside, I produced this work on a gesso panel, the first time I'd used one, and was surprised at the way it sucked in the paint rendering it almost dry in a short space of time.

Value vase - Oil on gesso board 6" x 6"

The next exercise that I tried was more an attempt to familiarise myself with some new acquisitions, some squirrel mop brushes. I came to buy these after a conversation with fellow artists, Colin Joyce and Peter Dimmock. They came along to introduce themselves during the recent Art Fair. During the chat they enthused about having worked on courses with Alvaro Castagnet and also of their admiration for the work of Joseph Zbukvic. I also enjoy the work of these two so I dug around in my library and the various video clips on the internet to find out a little more about their working methods. Central to the approach seemed to be the creation of large washes of colour laid down with mops, particularly Castagnet. Never having used them I decided to pick up a couple of mops from my local art store.

Brushes in hand I discovered a Zbukvic demonstration in one of my books and decided to have a go. The brushes felt really unfamiliar, my usual tools being Kolinsky sables. Judging the amount of pigment to add to the large reservoirs of water held by these brushes was something of a trial. The one thing I learned was that it would take a bit of practice to get the hang of the technique. The feel of the softer fibres lends itself to a much looser approach and from that point of view make the effort well worth while so I'll persevere. Anyway the attempt is below, crude though it is.

Venice Fish Market after Zbukvic - Watercolour on Not paper 12" x 10"

Quick Sketch

Back to miserable weather and the outdoor projects are on hold till it improves. Sitting thinking about alternative painting tasks I noticed and advert on the television for a programme about watercolours presented by Sheila Hancock and as with many art programmes on TV there was the inevitable shot from Venice. That provided the answer to my little query, 'What next?'. I dug out my Venice photographs and sketches and the watercolour box and got down to a quick sketch. It's not the greatest but gave me the chance to create a glazed sky and the lovely silhouette of Santa Maria del Salute. Lots of fun.

Salute - watercolour on Not paper 14" x 11"

Another strange mixture

Last week I was talking about a strange confluence of events and this one has proved to be in a similar vein. Sheila and I took the opportunity to go to our caravan in the Lake District for a few days - beautiful, then on Sunday we joined the rest of the family for another baptism - our granson Oliver Joseph. In between times a lorry attempted to total me and reduced the car to something less than it had been. All in all the opportunity to paint has been somewhat lacking, but I have managed a little.

The first piece was something I did late last year after watching a DVD by E. John Robinson and I heard last week that he had passed away so I place it here as a small thankyou for the stimulus he gave me to look at the sea with a clearer vision.






Wave Study - Oil on canvas board 12" x 10"

Tuesday night is life class and after posting an oil last time I decided to listen to the exhortation of WC contributors and spend some time concentrating on drawing and this piece resulted from our last session. I found the pose extremely difficult to draw. Lots of problems with perspective and proportions. The page shows evidence of the many restatements required to get the drawing to its current state. I need to work even harder at this.




Hannah - Graphite stick on paper (touch of watercolour) 20" x 15"



An occasional indulgence of mine is to open a book that I treasure. It is a bound book of watercolour paper that I reserve for images drawn from a holiday that we took in Venice. I have the Venice tourist's compulsory cache of photographs from that glorious week and I use them from time to time to inspire a watercolour sketch. This one is from last week.



Venice - Watercolour 12" x 10"

Hopefully, this next week will yield something more substantial in terms of painting as I am travelling down to Norfolk to attend a two day workshop with Martin Kinnear who I'm sure will give me plenty of guidance in terms of the next stages in my development. I'm looking forward to reporting on it next time I sit in front of the computer.

Discovering new heroes

The local family run book shop closed when the final member of the owners decided to retire. The final clearance sale was a treasure trove as there were numbers of interesting books being sold off at ridiculously low prices. Amongst them I discovered an artist that had never crossed my conscientiousness before, in fact I had never seen anything like it before. The book was the Watercolour Secrets of Charles Reid. The illustrations fascinated me, produced in a style that defied any description for me. I couldn't relate to all of them immediately but those that hit me did so like a steam train. I had to find out more. The book became a daily companion as I tried to come to terms with a new language, hard, soft, values, complementary colours, lost, found, contour drawing, warm, cool etc. Another job, trying out some of the techniques used by Charles - below is an early attempt at copying one of his images.