This is for Virtual Paintout, December 2013, Venice Italy challenge. It's oil on F4 canvas panel.
There were so many nice scenes in Venice to paint. We've been to Venice many years ago, and it's nice to virtually travel there again. With the holiday travel and all the meals, finding quiet time to paint has been a bit difficult.
I chose this particular scene (ref) to paint because it reminded me of a painting in a gallery we saw when we were there. The view of that painting was of a different tower in the city, but I remember the brilliant blue sky against bright orange color lights. So when I saw the bright sunny day street map photo of the Santa Maria Basilica, I thought it would be great for me to express using similar color combination.
With only about six tubes of color with me, I started with quick monochromatic sketch with a wash of burnt umber, which part of that can still be seen at the bottom right hand corner. My buildings weren't perfect straight, but I didn't think that was my purpose to render an architecture precise drawing. I just wanted to capture the light and color. So I kept these roughness in there.
With a few days left in the month, I wish the painting challenge can be extended science there are so many more nice scenes to paint!
