Venice 1

Wet, wet, wet!  Torrential rain and three aqua altas made this a challenging 6 days.  Self, David Pilgrim, David Bachmann, Karl Terry and Tony Dakin staying in Ken and Dora Howard's spacious apartment near the Fondamente Nove and Paul Rafferty and others staying nearby.

We arrived in gloomy weather but the next day was not too bad so we headed out.  This is us in the Campo Santa Maria Formosa - one of my favourite squares.

Heading Out - 11 October 2015

We pitched at the Straw Bridge for our first attempt.  OK at first but very crowded later with tourists taking photos of the Bridge of Sighs and going to and fro along the Riva.

Molo and Piazetta From the Straw Bridge 10x14

I was rather slow with this one and the others left to start another one.  I thought they had gone along the Riva towards the Pieta church but having wandered all the way to the Arsenale I realised I had lost them.  I decided to try out my pastels - a real experiment as I rarely take them out of the studio and never abroad until now.

San Giorgio and Salute frome the Arsenale bridge area - pastel

I wandered down Via Garibaldi, bought some lunch and sat in the little park that commemorates all 'stateless, anonymous persons' and ate it.  Wandering through the park brought me to the municipal gardens and back on the Riva where I tackled another pastel:

San Giorgio and Salute from the Giardini- pastel

At this point the two churches are almost 'in conjunction' and I reckon that from this spot the sun will set between them.

I took a vaporetto back to the San Zaccharia area but found that the crowds were obscuring so much that there was no point in staying.  I then took a '2' vaporetto over to San Giorgio Maggiore island to see what sort of a view it would give of the Salute.  It was now late afternoon so I had to hurry because I also wanted to do a quick pastel as the sun set.

Santa Maria della Salute from Isla San Giorgio Maggiore

The pastel was done in about 8 minutes and it shows!  I wanted to record where the sun set as much as anything.  I now knew that if I came back on a good day I could paint the sun setting almost behind the Salute from a point far up the Riva - maybe as far as the Biennale site.

Quick pastel of the sunset and the Salute

It was now late and I guessed that the others would be heading back to Ken's so I took a 4.2 going towards the Ferrovia.  I knew that this would eventually head up the Canareggio canal and turn along the Fondamente Nove.  It would then be a short walk.  Unfortunately I had not banked on there being so many stops along the Giudecca and on the main island so it was rather late when I eventually turned up.  All in all we were lucky with the first day but it was not to last.  More in the next post.