Images of Venice

Drawing and Illusion - Images of Venice

A Gondola on the Grand Canal

 

This week I visited Venice for 4 days with Mami and two friends, it was a surprise holiday arranged by Mami to celebrate my 60th birthday. The last time I was in Venice I was an 18 year old and on the threshold of adulthood, it was a flying visits as part of a camping tour round Europe.  This time we stayed in a gorgeous hotel with marble staircases near the Rialto Bridge and just a short walk from St Mark's Square, we also had four full days to enjoy the luxuries of the city.  The window from our room looked out onto a small courtyard with a most magnificent palm tree.

The Palm tree as seen from our bedroom window

Of course the first day was spent sightseeing in St Mark's where we took a long tour of the Doge's Palace.  In the evening, whilst waiting for the others to join me at a restaurant, I sat by one of the narrow canals.  My drawings are really reconstructions from memories, and it always takes a while to learn how to draw a new subject, I set out to work out how to draw the gondolas that were sliding silently through the water in front of me. 

A Gondolier

To one side I could see passers-by who would stop to watch the gliding gondolas passing underneath the bridges.  This is little girl crossing the bridge with her mother

Mother and child crossing a bridge

and a woman in a straw hat

Tourist in a Straw Hat

This is a picture of a little Dutch girl and her mother who were part one of a large family; I only had time to draw two of them before they were all around me asking to look at my drawings.

A Young Belgium Girl with her Family

Often the Gondolas carry very precious cargo; couples with an expression of calmness and togetherness.  The women, safe in the protective embrace of their menfolk, look with still eyes that caress in wonderment the architecture on the high walls of the houses that border the narrow waterways.  I failed to capture this expression, perhaps this drawing comes closest.

Couple in a Gondola

the next day we set off early in a boat from the hotel to the lagoon island of Murano where they have many Venetian glass workshops, our hosts met us at the quay and escorted us to a workshop where master craftsmen were at work.  I could not resist getting out my sketch book

Glassblowing on Murano

I had not made many sketches before we were moved on to their showrooms.  They tempted us with their wares, our passion was briefly taken by a set of 8 wineglasses for £1000, and fortunately we had the presence of mind not to lose our heads.  From Murano we took another boat to an island called Burano where they make Venetian lace.  This was a really charming and peaceful village with a single canal running down it's center, and many friendly family restaurants which served us delicious Sea Bream.

Burano - a small Island where they make Venetian Lace

I drew whilst Mami toured the shops.  This is a tourist sitting in an alleyway

Tourist on Burano

and this is Mami waiting for me to finish a drawing

Mami waiting for me to finish a Drawing

On the third day, whilst the others were visiting a gallery, I stood on top of a large wooden bridge that spanned the Grand Canal and looked across at a scene busy with boats, restaurants and magnificent architecture that lay beneath my feet.  It is rare for me to draw scenes, but Venice is a city that pulses with serenity, the ancient Venetians always said their city was a lady.  I love drawing beautiful ladies.

View Across the Grand Canal

At one end of the Bridge was a bag salesman called Pabu Amina, as tourists passed his pitch he ran up and down the steps bantering with them in fluent Italian, French and English.   His skin was a deep blue-black, beaded with sweat like fresh dew glistened in the sun. 

Pabu Selling Bags on the Grand Canal 

A little girl, carrying a rolled parasol, dressed in white and a straw boater slipped by.  She looked like one of the children from the film "Death in Venice", this fleeting encounter that left a strong visual impression on me; this is how I remember her to be

 Girl with a Parasol

Later in the day we visited a church where there were the tombs of  Titian, Canova and Monteverdi, and painted walls, paintings by Bernini and Titian, and a sculpture by Donatello.   Outside the church my friends waited for me to complete a drawing of a clock tower.  They lay lazily in a cool corner of the square and together made a perfect composition against the hard stone walls of the buildings around.  I kept them waiting longer because they were an irresistible target for my pencil! 

Bridgett, Brendan and Mami Resting in a Cool Corner of the Square

In Venice every wall in every alleyway is decorated. 

Pigeon in an Alcove

On the morning of the final day we toured the narrow canalways of Venice by gondola.  After we debarked we had two hours to wait before the boat came to collect us to take us to the airport, so I settled myself on the steps of a church near our hotel.  I was looking across a square and drew the tourists and Mami who were shopping and relaxing around a marble column finished with elegant black ironwork.   

Shoppers and Tourists clustered in groups around a monument at the centre of the Square 

Mami Shopping

Mami Shopping

The Italians love to talk, like this shopkeeper who was standing in the doorway of her shop chatting with passers by

Gossiping Shopkeeper

or these two friends who were also gossiping

Gossiping Couple

A little French boy with a soft blue silk scarf around his neck was running across the square and chasing the pigeons.  His name was Mael

Mael Chasing Pigeons

His brother Luca was sitting just behind me

Mael's elder brother Luca

Their mother, a red rose in her hair, gave her children gilati which they eat in the sun, this allowed the young parents time to rest a while 

Luca with his gilato

Luca was quiet and busy writing something on a little pad, later I discovered he was drawing me, we exchanged email addresses and agreed to send pictures to each other.  Eventually the father lifted a large rucksack on his back, and the mother picked up Mael; it was time for the family to go to do some more sightseeing.

It was time for the family to go on their way

It was also time for us to go back to our hotel.  The sun had shone throughout our four days in Venice, for the first time there were clouds in the sky and the air was beginning to spit with rain.  When we arrived at the airport it was raining, when we arrived back in Wales is was still raining, but our garden is a flood of colour that rivals Venetian beauty.  Being 60 is not all bad, but I cannot wait another 42 years before visiting the serene lady of Venice again, meanwhile I have plenty to draw.

Spring in Pembrokeshire

It has been a while since I last sent you some drawings, partly I have been busy, and partly after office hours it has been too cold  to sketch outside.   These last few days the chill has gone out of the evening air and there has been warmth from the sun which is still high in the sky at 6 in the evening. 

The twigs of the blackthorn trees, which are often in blossom in March, are still covered in their tiny white flowers.

and in the woodland that borders our lawn there are clusters of delicate snake's head fritillaries standing tall and elegant above the brightly coloured celandines.

There are not many insects yet , but you can see the queen bumble bees amongst the robust yellow heads of the dandelions that all look fresh and new in the clear Spring sunlight. 

  

the fields are full of the black faced ewes with their young lambs

about a week ago we had some rain, and the grass which has become lush and green was being enjoyed by cows munching the succulent stems

and young lambs sunning themselves before the dusk drew a veil over a long and blissful Spring day in Pembrokeshire

World Figure Skating Championships 2013

World Figure Skating Championships 2013

Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov

London (Canada) was founded  in the early 1800s by the British military as a garrison town to prevent the land-hungry Americans pushing their boundaries northwards.  The British soldiers were obviously homesick, they named the river running through the town "The Thames" and the streets and districts of the town after London districts; there are many familiar names like Piccadilly, Oxford street and St Paul's Cathedral.  But the similarities stop there, the weather is more severe, the  temperatures in mid March are colder than London UK in mid winter, and because the town is located on land between the Great Lakes the area has more thunder storms (including "ice storms")  than anywhere else in North America.  The day we arrived it was windy and snowing and the temperature was minus six.  There was no hint that winter would ever end, and the leafless trees sticking out of the snow  covered ground gave no hint of the approaching Spring, to walk just a few yards outside was an Arctic adventure

I am not a big skating fan, but Mami is.  Last year I had accompanied her to the championship in Nice on the French Riviera.   The arrangement worked well because the warm March sunshine had brought bathers out on to beaches and filled the cafe bars with elegant French society which gave me a lot to do and draw whilst Mami enjoyed watching the skating.  Last year I hardly drew any skaters, and when I tried the results were not encouraging, so I was apprehensive about going to Canada.

I need not have worried, on the first day we went to watch rehearsals at the practice rink which is some miles from the main arena.  Not many people go, so the atmosphere is informal and relaxed, and I settled myself in an inconspicuous place behind the main seating and started to draw.  There was an attractive pair of skaters from Italy practicing their lifts, they seemed to be in good spirits and enjoying their preparation work.

An Italian Pair were practicing their Lifts

Whilst making my first tentative drawings of the week I was disturbed by a voice over my shoulder, "that's nice" she said, and then she was gone in bobbing and bouncing movements back and fore along the aisle behind me.  I later discovered the voice belonged to Alyona Savchenko, who with her partner Robin Szolkowy, were the reigning world ice pairs champions in 2012-13.  Over the last seven years Alyona and Robin has never been outside the the top three in the World, at this championship they deservedly won the silver medal.

 Aljana Savchenko

Sadly I did not catch her lovely movements in my drawings, but over the week I made a number of drawings of pairs.  This sport is very artistic, and I was struck at how closely the couples work together.  We know that empathy develops much more strongly when people imitate, mirror and work in synchrony with each other and this was very evident in the relationships between the couples.

Yuko Kavaguti being swung with her head just inches above the ice

 

And there is also the matter of trust; the men will throw the spinning bodies of the girls very high in the air and then catch them before they hit the concrete hard ice.   It looked to me as if the girls were putting their lives at risk, but I never saw any fear in their faces, just serenity.  Sadly I never managed to sketch the throws, but I did manage this image of Yuko Kawaguti being swung with her head just inches above the ice.  A drawing like this contains a lot of license, I cannot remember the position of the man, instead I choose a position that most emphasised the flow of the line created by Yuko's taught body.   Drawings like this are far removed from photographs, they are as much about spirit as they are about sight.

And of course there were many soloist, like this male skater. 

A  Male Soloist

 I do many drawings of classical ballet, perhaps I take this experience too far in my pictures of skaters.   I think this image may be Kavaguti again, who of all the girls has the most balletic movements (see opening picture above)

Yuko Kavaguti landing from a throw

Mami is a big fan of an ice skater called Daisuke Takhashi.  Daisuke's dramatic and masterful movements and musicality has taken men's skating into new territory.  This is the only drawing I made of his movements, perhaps I will look at some videos to make some more drawings.

The dramatic masterful movements and musicality of Daisuke Takahashi

We booked our tickets very late, and for some events the tickets were sold out.  Next to the main arena was a new market building with seats and chairs and a television relaying what was happening in the main hall.  This was a wonderful opportunity for me to make sketches of the spectators.

  

Two Japanese Spectators

Most of the spectators are women, this man looked slightly out of place, but he was obviously enraptured by the goings on.

 This unlikely fan looked enraptured

This is Mami watching the television.  Her elegant clothes stood out against the unfussy fashion of Canadians who never try to look chic, but they make up for it by being about the friendliest and most open people I have ever come across. 

Mami stood out for her chic elegance

There were of course many lovely girls 

Just a Beautiful Girl

And the young mothers whose children are still too young to appreciate the spectacle

 Madonna

or simply did not have tickets to take their daughters to see the shows live

 Mother and Daughter

After the competition is over there is a Gala where the winners show off their skills and have fun.  I went to watch the rehearsals before the event, an instructor arrived with a piece of paper and within two hours she had taught the medal winners a group routine for the closing ceremony.

The Instructor

The stars all have their own quirky pieces.  Mao Asada did a sequence to the music from Mary Poppins

Mao Asada as Mary Poppins

This is a drawing of Carolina Kostner from Italy who has a very serene style of her own

Carolina Kostner from Italy

And Yuna Kim, the golden girl of the championships, came in wearing a bowler hat

Yuna Kim in a Bowler Hat

The next day we had to return to the Britain,  there had been heavy snow in Toronto which meant our flight was delayed for fourteen hours, but I did not mind because I love drawing people in airports.

Like this bored businessman

Waiting in the Airport

and this girl opening a bottle.

Girl in an Airport Canteen

and besides we were all still on a high

  

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