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| Venice in Morning Haze 4, watercolor 30 x 23 cm |
A few years ago while walking along Piazza San Marco in Venice an enormous cruise ship sailed through the strait, dwarfing the city and its beautiful buildings. I had the feeling that this is completely out of place, uncanny and indecent. A pedestrian near by looked at the ship with utter contempt and said just "Americaano!" thus expressing the common feelings to this grotesque picture.
This spring, I happened to sail into Venice on a similar monstrous ship, at the end of an Adriatic cruise. No, I am not proud of that. However, this gave me the opportunity to take some very lovely pictures of the city at dawn. It was only 5:30 in the morning and the sun was not yet above the horizon. While slowly sailing through the canal I could enjoy the view of the back-lit city skyline and the mist raising from the water.
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| Venice in Morning Haze 3, watercolor 30 x 23 cm |
These are a few watercolor sketches I made from those photos. I posted them in reverse chronological order as I think that they are getting better. Initially I was using Ocher, but then decided that the light and hazy effect calls for transparent pigments. So, the top two are done with Indian Yellow, Alizarin and Ultramarine. The other important thing is to have enough paint ready and work very fast before hard edges could form. I wasn't so good at this, apparently. A larger size would need more preparation.
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| Venice in Morning Haze 2, watercolor 30 x 23 cm |
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| Venice in Morning Haze 1, watercolor 30 x 23 cm |
