A few years ago, a group of architects and painters from Savannah, Georgia, stayed with us in Venice for a week in autumn. Unusually long for most visitors just stay a couple of days. Like the 1960s, when visitors remained for a week and longer in town. They came to Venice for a real vacation.
Our American guests had come to Venice on a special mission. Having studied the luminous pictures of Venetian vedutisti painters, they wanted to experience the mystic light of the Venetian fall firsthand.
Vedutismo means “painting vedute”. Veduta can be translated as view. It’s a view of landscapes and cityscapes. The way a group of painters in the 17th century used to paint pictures full of light. How Antonio Canal – Canaletto expressed his views of Venice in stark and intense colors. Just like October is clad in Canaletto colors.
On this particularly sunny day at breakfast, our guests asked me where they could go in Venice to paint. They were looking for a quiet place with the bland morning sun bathing the view.
So while sipping coffee and eating a piece of autumn cake, my grandmother’s staple butter cake with mulberry jam filling, we decided I show them a few places where to paint and then pick them up two hours later to discover yet another place to paint.
Walking around in October means learning about light. Even though they used to work in their laboratories, Venetian vedutisti loved walking around in Venice to take in the effects of light. Capturing these details was the core of their success.
For in these first few days of October, the light is changing, leading us away from the illusion that summer is still around. It actually is summer – in the sun at noon.
So which were the special corners my American guests were visiting? It was the following four you’ll get to know in the next few pictures. Where you go to paint depends on the season. In my opinion, for painting, come to Venice in April or October. November and January will also be fine if you love misty secretive atmosphere and bland winter colors.
There’s one common advantage you can enjoy in every month of the year: By painting, or sketching views with a pencil and in watercolors, you really get to know every single brick and color shade of Venice :-)
#1 Painting a unique urban feature I could stop on ponte storto next to La Fenice for hours on end. At night, this is probably the most quiet place in Venice. The only thing you can hear are your steps echoing on the pavement, the masegni. A ponte storto is a favorite Venetian feature of mine, it’s a complex bridge, a ponte obliquo, often spanning two or more canals and creating a platform, a tiny campiello.
#2 Painting the view from a balcony on Campo della Bragora This is a quiet yet lived-in campo. It has its own little green oasis. With my favorite plants in town, the Persian silk tree. I have always loved them and they still boast a few blossoms in October. They make a fine backdrop if you want to paint details, like the vera da pozzo – drinking water well made of white Istrian stone. From this second-floor perspective, you can also view and paint the church San Giovanni in Bragora.
#3 Painting the Grand Canal with a view of do bricole – two wooden poles I’ve always wondered what this picture would be like, with two fine bricole in the foreground. Paint it in the early morning. Then, walk off to Tragheto Santa Sofia, cross the Grand Canal and …
#4 Now change perspectives and paint the same surroundings !! Walk over to Strada Nova to paint exactly the area you’ve just been to. Stopping on a bridge along Strada Nova but do it rather early in the morning, for later it is very crowded here.
This place needs light, though, I’ve seen it as a landmark picture on Venice Connection. My pictures here were taken on a hazy October morning so the colors, the reddish pink of the house and the turquoise of the Grand Canal don’t show so much without the sun. Now look at the picture below – what a difference the sun, right season, and right time of day can make :-) The right angle of sun rays to bring out its full beauty.
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