Tag Archives: Venice in the Rain Oil Paintings

Venice – The Path

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Venice – The Path 11×17 Oil Painting by Winifred

As I perused a friends blog reflecting their recent train tour of Italy – and environs, I saw a photo taken in Venice which stopped me in my tracks. There were many beautiful photos from their trip, but if you recall my paintings from my Venice photos, they all featured umbrellas, rain and the night. I immediately selected her daylight photo to paint. I thought it would be interesting to see if I would approach this painting differently. I enjoyed creating the color variation and texture on the walls, though there was texture on my canvas as well. I added plants and simplified many other aspects of her photo. Painting is about eliminating the non essential.

Recently, Venice presented some very exciting news to the world. During the past several years a $7 billion engineering project was developed to save Venice.

It’s fascinating. (The development and engineering of this system was created by a woman – just so you know.) If interested in learning about the project – view this short YouTube video in the link below and perhaps a few more.There is real hope for Venice.There’s just no other place like it in the world. I believe the system first launched a couple years ago. Saving Venice

I actually painted a portrait last week and though “correct” I found it completely boring and hence wouldn’t post it. Have a great weekend. Hope you have some flowers and veggies growing. I have plants, of course, but the primary food I grow is strawberries in containers. This year, I had to divide them and gave tons of plants to friends. YUM! Thank you for viewing my blog. Winifred

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Venice at Night – The Gathering

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Venice at Night – Gathering, Oil Painting 12×16 by Winifred Whitfield

Often, if not all the time you’ll see groups of people gathered in the many narrow paths and streets of Venice, Italy. At night, this is an even more striking as they are lit by golden window light. Add rain and you add shimmer to the darkened silhouettes. Umbrellas don’t play a dominant role in this painting but they are present. Hope you enjoy. Winifred

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Venice – Physical Distancing

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Venice Italy Social Distancing – Oil Painting 12×16 by Winifred Whitfield

Another colorful umbrella, reflections and lots of texture to paint – a journey unto itself. Initially there was a group of ten people at the end of the stone path. I didn’t find that very interesting and chose not to include them, instead deciding on one person I would create from imagination. There he was standing alone and suddenly became a strong focal point – surrounded by the light and wearing dark clothing. He needed some “stuff” to diffuse the focus. I decided on a bicycle and a backpack – something so often seen in Italy. That alone with shadows for him, and a few smudges allow it to work for me – attention, but not too much – after all, the man with the red umbrella is the “star”. Painting from my Italy photo references gives me the opportunity to paint environments with people, texture, and dramatic lighting formed in a very different way from painting portraits and still lifes – I like that. The fact is, I love it all. Below are a couple of additional previous paintings created nearly 3 years ago – you may not have seen. Hope you enjoy.

Nonna – by Winifred

Above: This is such a tender painting. I love it still – so does a friend who owns it and tells me often this is the first thing she sees when she wakes every morning. She loves her grandmother and this is a reminder of the relationship they share.

Venice at Night by Winifred

Don’t let this one scare you. I have an “undetermined” assessment with the above painting. It was one of my very early paintings and my first impasto painting. What I do like is the energetic brushstrokes – with a bit of an impressionist look to it – though the impressionist were all about painting outdoors in light. t does hold my attention and suggest that I explore it in detail. This painting has had a new home for quite sometimes and he thinks it’s great – whereas I’m still not quite sure about it. I think I’m less bold now and that is NOT good. Actually, the more I look at it – the more I like it. I must try to create a new painting in this style. That would be fun.

In my next post, I hope to enchant you with a series of miniature floral paintings. Miniature for me is 4×6 inch paintings. I’ve completed a couple of them and they are pretty fun to do. It’s different from painting a larger painting. Stay safe. Winifred

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