Month: January 2020

Venice:Grand Canal the finished painting

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Grand Canal, Venice

This has taken a long time to complete. We were away in Romania over the New Year Break, came home and were ill, and seemed to take weeks to recover.Funeral preparations had to be attended to throughout all this for my father’s burial.

However, on a more upbeat note, working on this painting has been a great support, as painting always is. There has been so much detail to attend to, especially with the buildings on the left. The architecture is very Gothic, so intricate, and the variety of colours was exciting. Trying to colour match the photograph was amusing, especially when it came to the flags.

I may have said that I altered the composition from the original photograph. I have shifted the buildings on the left away from the buildings on the right. This has cured some of the congestion, and has also given a view to the Customs House and beyond to the open sea. We now have depth where before we didn’t

I ended up quite liking the painting, despite the jumble of different colours. Sunny and bright at this grey time of the year, which cannot be bad

What shall I look at next? Staying in Italy, but moving from Venice to Florence, I am going to have a crack at the famous Ponte Vecchio , and see what sort of fist I can make of that

An Interesting Sale

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Corfu:Shopping Lanes in Kerkyra

This painting sold on the internet out of the blue. They’re often the best ones I often think, as they give you a boost. A buyer in the United States has bought it, and it is on its way as we speak

We have had a dreadful start to the year since getting back from Romania. My father died on New Year’s Eve whilst I was away. My wife and I have both been ill ever since getting back. I am just getting over bronchitis and my wife has one heavy cold followed by another. Fearsome bugs

We have had to do funeral preparations whilst feeling like death ourselves, even though having wonderful support from family, there were some things I had to do myself

This painting had happy memories. We were in Corfu about three years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. Literally any port in a storm, we were unable to dock on the Adriatic coast and had to run from the storm. Corfu took us, and what a lovely place it is. We had a tour round the island and spent the afternoon in Kerkyra in the shopping lanes. This painting was my memento. I am so pleased that someone has chosen it and it will go somewhere it will be valued

Afterwards we sailed for Greece in the evening. It had been a lovely trip. Often thought I would like to revisit Corfu and spend more time

Anyway this short blog whilst I think of it. I am still working on the Venice picture but not as much as I would like

Transylvania: the home of Dracula

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A View of Peles Castle in Transylvania

Just by way of a break from the painting of Grand Canal, on which I haven’t worked for a while because of Christmas and the New Year Break. Happy New Year everybody by the way

We spent the New Year in Romania, in Transylvania to be precise, looking at sites associated with the Dracula legend, amongst other things. The topography looks like the sort of backdrop that you would expect, mountains, forests, snow, but I didn’t hear any wolves. I was brought up on the Hammer Films from the 1960s starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The dialogue was very serious. Nothing was done for laughs unlike some modern adaptations. You did not mess with these guys

In the background of the photograph is Peles castle, which had nothing to do with Dracula although it looks as though it should have. It was built as a summer residence under the direction of King Carol I and his wife Queen Elizabeth, and was finished in 1914

The castle associated with the legend of Dracula, is Bran. We went there later that day. Two of our party went awol and wasted more than an hour whilst we looked for them. We were late getting to Bran, and it was getting dark. Our coach driver didn’t say “This is as far as I will take you”, but I was waiting for him to do so. It was a very steep climb up to the castle and I attach a picture to give you an idea

Bran Castle

Romanians are always mystified by the legend of Dracula, who to them is Vlad, and known as the Impaler because of the way he put his enemies to death. To them he was a hero, because he gave them years of stability and good rule. he also protected them from the Turks. As far as I can see, there is no cult of the vampire coming from Transylvania. That was fiction from the pen of Bram Stoker, although they were grateful for the flood of American tourists that came looking for Dracula

We ended our tour in Bucharest, with an excellent city tour. It is 30 years since their revolution when the two dictators Ceausescu were executed by firing squad, after the fall of the Communist regime in Europe. We saw their newly completed palace, bigger than any building I have ever seen. It was a symbol of their greed and power which they had now had taken from them. Small wonder that Romanians said “Enough is enough”

A really enjoyable trip, although tiring towards the end, and both of us have heavy colds