Gondola Veneziana - Landscape Acrylic Painting

"Gondola Veneziana"
     11"x14" 
Acrylic on Canvas Panel


Venice holds a very special spot in my heart: I grew up few miles from it, and I went to the University in Venice. I've always enjoyed the city and its atmosphere, so rich of history and architecture, so artistic, and so poetic.
Painting Venice can be intimidating. There are many things that are different from what our eye would expect. Lines in Venice are never straight. Walls, sidewalks and buildings have almost organic structure: they curve, soar and lean, in a harmonious way.  
When I saw the A Day Not Wasted blog posted a painting challenge with a Venetian Gondola, I thought this was my chance to break the ice and start painting my beautiful Venice. Though the reference picture is darker than the Venice I like to remember, I needed the incentive to get started on my first painting of Venice, and it worked. I tried to brighten up the colors a little and added some flowers on the climbing vegetation. The ripples on the canal were particularly interesting. I tried to give the same effect of “oily” water.
If you want to see the reference photo and know more about the challenge click here.

Comments

  1. HorstFebruary 24, 2011

    Wonderful painting, great colors and simplification of shapes, very well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robie BenveFebruary 26, 2011

    Thank you Horst. I really appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. yashaMarch 02, 2011

    This is a wonderful painting Robie.The colors of the buildings look great and loved the way you painted water.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robie BenveMarch 03, 2011

    Thanks so much Yasha!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments and feedback are welcome. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Winter is Coming - Portrait, Acrylic on Canvas

Image
"Winter Is Coming" 12"x16" Acrylic on Canvas Available   I am really pleased with how this painting came out.  And to think that I used to be very intimidated by painting people, now I can do portraits that really resemble the model, woohoo!  :) I used a canvas that had an abstract pattern already painted on it, with the idea of covering the pattern in most areas, leaving only a few hints of it here and there. However, when I started the new painting, I really liked the pattern background and how it was peaking through everywhere, so I kept it visible as part of the composition. The model was wearing a warm scarf, and it made me smile when shortly after we got our first big snow of the year, she must have known that winter was coming, and coming soon. :)
Read more

Cane Corso, the Italian Mastiff - acrylic dog painting

Image
"Ettore" 9" x 12"  Acrylic on canvas panel Ettore is a very black dog that belongs to my family in Italy. I hear stories about this smart and friendly puppy all the time I call home, from what they tell me he’s such a handful! My family always had German Shephards, and this is the first “different” dog in the household, his breed is Cane Corso, an Italian tipe of Mastiff.  I asked for some pictures of him and he’s so cute that I couldn’t resist painting him. The fun part is that I did not use any black paint. I’m curious to hear what my family thinks about this portrait, did I get the personality of a dog I never met?   We do not see things as they are.  We see them as we are. Talmud 
Read more

Japanese Maple Tree Acrylic Painting

Image
Japanese Maple Tree #2 16"20" Acrylic on Canvas, framed The painting in the photo is one of my latest, a second version of my favorite Japanese Maple Tree, from the Portland Garden. The colors are a little off on this picture, I'll try to load a better one later I wish I had taken a photo before varnishing... I really love this Maple Tree, it has become my favorite tree to paint. And every time I paint it I already know I will try a different technique, which makes it even more fun! :) And some rumbling... Oh boy!  I survived this busy period, and now I have a new focus on my mind. After 4 weeks of kids swimming lessons, nine articles written for hubpages.com, 72 hours of power outage, a freezer full of defrosted meat that needed cooking, three trees fallen from our neighbors yard onto ours, two days at my first Art Fair Event at 102 F (39 C) degrees, and probably something else but I can't think about it now... Oh My! as Anastasia Steele would say - (Ye...
Read more