Venice Rising, late August, 2009

It has been over 4 years since I walked the streets of Venice where I took that panoramic picture on top of San Marcos square overlooking the city. It has been almost 5 months since I began this painting from that picture.

 

Each morning when I enter my studio I spend a few minutes and sometimes hours reflecting on the journey that the particular canvas I have been painting has been on. Venice Rising has indeed changed and evolved dramatically over the days and weeks, layer upon layer, colour upon colour.

 

When I close my eyes I try to remember what the city gave me those few early summer days, the impressions that were left, I keep coming back to the colours. The colours of the streets, the buildings, the water, the shops, the glass, the carnival, the atmosphere, the taste….

 

What I wanted to create in this painting was the memory of a feeling or experience, not a depiction. It wasn’t about creating a representational view of the city rather it was about a process of layering and blending of colours that would achieve the glowing richness that the city embodies. Maybe the years have blurred the lines that have defined my vision of the city, and maybe not.

 

According to Lodovico Dolce, (1508/10-1568), an Italian painting theorist and humanist, Venetian artists gradually softened their colouring until their manner equaled nature. Rather than beginning with careful drawings, Venetian painters often worked out compositions directly on the canvas, using layered patches of coloured brushstrokes rather than line to define form. Venetian drawings show an interest in how light will affect a body and how colour will describe it in a painting.

 

It is in those interactions or explosions of colour that have defined the painting now that the canvas is almost complete.

 

Venice Rising, August 2009, detail.

Venice Rising, last week of August, 2009

Venice painting in progress, April 6

The innocence and honesty of children can be so refreshing at times. My 14 year old daughter came into the studio the other day and I asked her what she thought of the painting of Venice? Well, that was a loaded question!! Her comment to me was, where is the city? “I liked the painting when I could see Venice, Dad.” “Why do you always paint over the good parts of a painting”? Yep…kids, but she does have a point. She is not the first person to ask that question. I do it every day.

I am not trying to paint a picture that looks like Venice. That’s too easy, too predictable, too safe. What I strive to create is a painting that embraces what Venice is and what I felt when I walked those narrow streets that early summer morning.

The beauty…the richness… the starkness…the smells…the taste… the colours…

No matter how dark, cold and grey the city could feel at times, the colours, vibrancy and vitality of life always shone through. You could just feel it!!

You tell me? When you look at the 2 pictures here, which one feels more like that town Venizia?

Venice Rising, detail, August 2009

detail, almost actual size.

Venice Rising, August 2009

Venice Rising, late August 2009

As with any creative process it is always good to take some time away to relax, recharge and to refocus. I took a few weeks off this summer to travel, unwind, get new ideas and to take some time away from the painting. After dozens and dozens of hours working on Venice I knew I needed some time away. In late August I finally went down to the studio with a goal of finishing the painting. I wanted to “git er dun” as the saying goes. The problem was I wasn’t too sure how to get there.

I gave myself the week to finish the painting. Sometimes deadlines, even self imposed can put on enough pressure. This post along with the next 3 or 4 posts will show the progression to the finished painting (yes it is finished but I need to build up the suspense and anticipation)

Venice Rising, detail

Venice Rising, detail

detail showing colour and texture, close to actual size

progress as of June 10, 2009

I have had a number of people ask me if the painting is finished yet, to which I said to myself out of complete dismay, “Can’t you see it is not!!” I realized that it is very difficult not only for the viewer to be able to see when a work is finished but also for the artist. Add on to that my process of applying dozens of layers; I guess I can see how difficult it is to know when I am finished a painting.

I am now at the stage where I am starting to think that the painting is almost done. I have cropped it to look more like a finished piece. I worked on it for about 7 hours since the last post and as you can see it has changed dramatically. In the studio it looks pretty good, but on the computer screen I am not too sure.  The subtleties in the white and pink areas don’t show as well, nor do the splashes of pure colour but it does give you a better look at the overall structure, much better then when in front of the actual canvas.

I would really appreciate any comments, criticisms and suggestions.

This is the stage where as the artist you need to be very critical and honest about the work. I can remember critique day at university, when the entire class would get together and criticize the art works. Those were hard days. You may think the what you created was good but in fact it was actually really bad and believe me, people (and especially the professor) had no problem telling you it was crap. The criticism was very constructive for sure and  it taught you to have a good critical eye.

So the question is, is Venice finished?

progress as of May 29, 2009

Some times you just have to have faith that you will somehow be guided through the creative process by powers beyond your control. Maybe that is what inspiration is? Today was one of those days. I knew I was going to really tackle and change the painting today. I knew colour, expression and vibrancy would be a part of it. The difficulty is, once you start you can’t go back. Sounds simple but believe me it is not. What you see is the result.

I will need to contemplate what I painted for a few days to see where the canvas goes next. The challenge is now to bring the two distinct sides (left and right) of the work together. The softness of  the infused light on the left and the chaotic explosion of paint on the right.

progress as of May 27, 2009

To those of you who are artists and/or the creative types and anyone else, I pose this question to you.

Can you see what I am seeing and where this painting will be going? Can you hear Venice speaking to you yet?

 Today I really felt the painting speak to me. I have been working on trying to resolve the left side of the canvas, working on this fog, cloud thingy that is still floating on top of the canvas. I am not as much concerned with this looking like “whisps” of cloud flowing over the landscape as I am the feel of this mass of colour, texture and tone.

Today the canvas spoke to me .Today I heard what it has been desiring to tell me and has been craving for me to do. I had originally wanted to create a painting that felt like Venice on a cloudy overcast day. The blues, greens and greys of a misty morning walk. Today the painting told me that is only one part of Venice. Please, please don’t forget the bold and vivid colours of Venice, when you walk the streets, the store windows, the glass, the Carnival and the excitement and the true passion of Venice.

I am almost ready to begin the next half (right) of the painting.

 

Detail of the fog and cloud

 

 

Venice, as of May 18, 09

Creativity and inspiration occur in the oddest ways. I finished the painting today on a very positive note, finally getting a sense of where the work may be going. Just after I stopped I was up in my bedroom taking some random pictures of my backyard. The flash kept bouncing off the glass and created a “fog” over the photo, very similar to the effect I think I am trying to create in the painting. (pic below) It was what I call an AH HA moment where inspiration and creativity collide.

Picture of my backyard

progress as of May 13, 09

I had my first one man art show in a Toronto Gallery in the prestigious Yorkville gallery district over 20 years ago. I was in my late 20’s and on top of the world creatively, so I thought. It was a reasonably good show, I sold a few works and I thought I was on my way in the art world. After the show I went back to my studio and began producing more art. When I approached the gallery to show again, they did not seem to be overly interested in the work. I didn’t quite know why until a few years later when I took a good look at what I was painting and I realized it was very mediocre and not really “finished” art. Ever since then I have had a fear of showing my art publically because I never think it is complete or finished.

When I took the picture of the Venice painting today all of that fear and all of that vulnerability came back with a vengeance. The process of creating art is a very personal, emotional and vulnerable process and probably more so with visual artists because we normally only show the finished work once we are content that it is done.

When I looked at the picture on today’s post I realized that the painting is far from done. It doesn’t work together as a whole, it doesn’t flow, there is no tension, no congruity, no feeling…. I really hesitated doing today’s post, until I looked at the detail pictures. In those I saw areas of feeling and emotion as the colours interacted on the canvas. There were glimpses of what the final work could be.

Tomorrow will be a new day and inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter Venice will emerge.

detail, May 13, 09

 

 

 

progress as of May 11, 09

Inspiration comes in many ways.

 As I do every morning, I have a prescribed routine I follow when I paint as I am sure most everyone does when they go to work or start their day. I make my coffee, get the newspaper, check my emails then I go down to the studio, where I put on some classical music, sit in my chair, drink my coffee, read my newspaper and wait for my “inspiration”. This morning I already had my inspiration. Before I entered my studio I was checking messages on facebook and I clicked on a message from a friend in Russia with a poem by one of the great Russian poets of the 20^th century, Anna Ahmatova. It was a poem of Venice and the words spoke to me.

 That poem guided me today.

 Thank you Daria

Venice

A golden dovecote by the water,
Soft and stunning green;
A salty breeze obliterates
The gondolas’ thin wakes.

So many tender
foreign faces in the crowd,
Bright toys in every shop:
A lion with a book on an embroidered pillow,
A lion with a book atop a marble pillar.

As if on an old, faded canvas,
The sky cools, dull blue…
But in this crush one isn’t cramped,
Not stifled in the intense heat and the damp.

Anna Ahmatova, August 1912

detail showing the grey, green and turqoise I used today

As I mentioned in my last post, I am trying to create a “feel” through the subtle layering of colour. Though it may be hard to see a lot of change now, it will have a dramatic impact on the finished canvas.

What I accomplished today was to create a “feel” or mood with the combination of greys, blues and greens that will be very predominant on the left half of the painting. My next step will be to bring out and intensify the grey/green fog or atmosphere. It is an important phase in the look and feel of the final work, though there are still many layers to go.