With the beautiful city of Venice still fresh in my mind I’ve been working on some new paintings. I was given a pad of lovely Arches watercolour paper by a good friend and being long and thin they are the perfect size for views of the canal. It’s wonderful paper to work with and makes a big difference on layering washes and merging colours.

Given the paper size I looked through my photos and found three views I felt I could work on. The first is one from my sketchbook and shows a scene across the Grand Canal to a bridge with people wandering over it with umbrellas/parasols. (My camera has distorted the verticals I’m afraid)

Parasols in Venice

The next was of a dark sided canal with an old boat moored up and a bridge in the distance, close to our hotel.

Finally the water in Venice has a greeny,blue colour in certain lights, close to Veridian and I found a picture that captures the colour and mood of the place. The camera has taken some of the green out of the picture but I like the overall result.

Venice reflection

I’m thinking of grouping the three paintings onto a single frame as they work well together. (verticals are off as the paper has curled)

More paintings to come of Venice but I’m also planning for this years Pintar Rapido. As I’m working with this lovely paper I thought I could use it for the competition. I made a quick study of the Albert Hall and produced this… what do you think? Worth a try on the day?