The view of Santa
Maria Della Salute across the Canal Grande in Venice has been drawn and painted by more
artists than I could possibly feed in a life time. So why should I try it as well? Maybe it is a view to behold.
First time in Venice in 2003 for five days and travelling with
my wife, I could not afford to sit down and take all the time in the world to
sketch on the spot. So a photo had to suffice.
As soon as I began
painting from that photo I ran into trouble. I couldn’t look round the
corners, or through ships. A blur on a building on the right was, in fact, a
magnificent mosaic. I needed to know the actual layout of the Customs' building and so
on.
I did a lot of
research on most of the individual buildings lining the Canal along that
stretch – the web is invaluable for that – but that was still not good enough.
We figured that
even a full year would be insufficient to soak up all the beauty of Venice, but even so, we
returned in 2005 for another five days. Then, I could poke around all the
corners and make note of details and features which I missed the previous time.
The painting remains unfinished. I
started with the umber under painting and since have
gone over it three times laying down the colours and experimenting with
glazes. This is still under painting what you see. Painting
the water is definitely a challenge but I will get there.
all images copyright © to ACW ten Broek
