Venice - Day 3 & 4

Here are four more paintings produced during my recent trip in Venice. After two days of sunshine (see my previous post here), Venice suddenly got wrapped in a very thick fog that made everything look mysterious and magical. The downside is that sometimes you just can't see any further than 5 meters away! A lot of white paint used during those few days!

DAY3:

My first painting on Day3 is a detail of the Basilica on San Marco Piazza:

Detail of San Marco Basilica   10"x8"  oil on board

I set up quite close to be able to see something - any further and the basilica would have vanished completely:

Nobody is allowed to make fun of my hat by the way

I liked the way the fog was literally eating up the basilica on the edges of the building and towers:

Detail

At that time we met by chance other painters and at some point around 10 of us were painting on the Piazza. Some tourists made the most of the welcoming entertainment on this foggy day and decided to stop at each painter to have a look, just like you would on your local village Arts Trail...

David Bachmann inspired by the fog... (thanks David Pilgrim for the picture)

San Marco Piazza in the fog

Most of us decided to stay on the Piazza for a second painting and I did a little study of the lovely shops  in the Arcades around San Marco Piazza:

Shops at Piazza San Marco   10"x12"  oil on board

I was inspired by the beautiful architecture of the arches and the warm welcoming lights coming from the luxury jewellery shops. I did finish this one at home as I ran out of time to paint it all on the spot and decided to add the figure to bring life to the painting. 

Detail

Detail

My set up on the day

As I was setting up for this painting, two utterly cute children came to talk to me and have a look at my painting. I hadn't started yet but let them put the first few brushstrokes and filling the background on the canvas (not even ashamed to have child labour doing the job for me!). They both kept coming every 5 minutes or so giving me endless encouragement (doesn't matter how bad your painting is going, kids will always find it fantastic!). A local photographer (Fabio Thian) took a series of pictures of the moment and kindly sent them to me:

(check out his blog here to view all his superb photographs)

© Fabio Thian

© Fabio Thian

© Fabio Thian

After this painting, Haidee, Tim and I headed for the lovely square at Campo Santa Maria Formosa. It was ridiculously foggy at that time and we were all rather tired and grumpy (well, I was!). I struggled with my painting as instead of being a lovely colourful study, it was more like Venice in 50 tints of Grey! But again, some kids playing football on the square kept me entertained, so much that I ended up putting them in the painting (and the babysitter too) and giving them the painting for them to take home. They happily posed for me in front of the little painting:

Lucrenia, Daniela and Carlo Maria

The youngest boy seemed to be the most interested in the painting process so I let him have a try. This little Picasso ended up painting for half an hour, I simply couldn't stop him! There seems to be a pattern here about me relaxing and the kids doing the hard work!

Meanwhile, a few meters away, Haidee and Tim were producing little masterpieces of their own:

DAY4:

The next day, in spite of our prayers, voodoo sessions, and witchcraft spells, the fog was still there. We did a first painting at the Rialto Bridge but I was not pleased with it so it currently stands on the "will probably go to the bin" pile. Afterwards, Haidee and I headed for the Ospedale. I had to have a go at the famous sculpture in the middle of square:

Verrocchio - Bartolomeo Colleoni, Campo dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo  9"x12"   oil on board

I chose a composition which had plenty of lines and structures to keep it interesting.

Haidee and I in action

My painting towards the end

Detail

Finally, I made the most of the last hour of daylight to do a quick study of the bridge standing just behind me so I turned around and stood alongside the water and did this little study in about 35 minutes:

Bridge at Santi Giovanni e Paolo   5"x7"  oil on board

Local people kept waving at me trying to warn me of the danger of standing on slippery seaweed just on the edge of the water. I wanted to explain that artists like to live dangerously for their Art but my italian didn't quite stretch that far so I just waved back at them.

Detail

Check my blog next week for the final post with my remaining paintings of the trip... That is, of course if we all survive the end of the world on Friday the 21st of December!
Meanwhile, I already wish you all a wonderful Christmas time!

My paintings are available for sale directly from me or through a gallery and can be shipped worldwide. Prices depends on size and subject and generally range from £100 to £500. Please email me to check prices and availability at valpirlot1@hotmail.com

Venice - Day 1 & 2

After a week back at work, I finally managed to take the pictures of my paintings from the Venice trip. I stayed with 3 other painters (Haidee-Jo Summers, David Pilgrim  and Tim King) and we shared an apartment near the Rialto Bridge. Although it wasn't a proper "organised trip", there were several other painters in various accommodations including Karl Terry, David Bachman, Chris Daynes, Tony Dakin, Stuart Fullerton, Roy Connelly, Mike Richardson, Sidney Cardew and Eric Davies. It was fun to keep bumping into each other during the trip.

DAY1:

Here are my paintings from my first two days in Venice. On the first day Haidee and myself set up on the Piazzetta to catch the beautiful morning sky:

Piazzetta in the morning   12"x9"  oil on board

Piazzetta, San Marco

Detail

We set up on the top of those "tables" laid out for the high water. It gave us a great perspective and kept us out of reach from the tourists:

Haidee and I

You can see who is the lazy one sitting down :-)

My painting at the end of the session

In the afternoon, after trying those delicious italian sandwiches I tackled the unavoidable Basilica San Marco. No wonders it's such an popular subject; it's simply magnificent! 

Piazza San Marco between the clouds  12"x10"  oil on board

Detail

It was quite a challenge to paint, without mentioning the fact that I was standing right in the middle of the square attracting masses of curious tourists. I must say most of them were lovely and gave me nice words of encouragement to keep me going... Someone even gave me two roses!

A local photographer (Luca Girardini) took these two pictures while I was painting and kindly sent them to me:

© Luca Girardini 

© Luca Girardini 

The picture below was kindly taken by fellow painter David Pilgrim and shows the kind of crowd we sometimes have to cope with when painting in public places! I must admit I felt a bit the pressure as it seems every brushstroke I made was carefully inspected by the onlookers!

DAY 2:

On the second day, first thing in the morning we tackled the Salute from the other side of the Grand Canal. The light coming from behind the Salute was just fantastic and gave a lovely contre jour effect: 

Salute Maria della Salute - early morning  12"x10" oil on board

Detail

We actually managed to find the exact same spot where Ken Howard - the master of Venice paintings - stands on his Venice oil DVD. I realise it must sounds sadly geeky! I just wish I produced the same painting as him! I almost wiped mine of frustration but manage to "save" it after all.

My easel in the foreground and David Pilgrim and Tim King in the distance

We then crossed the water and Haidee and I painted near the Salute looking across the canal towards San Marco. What caught our eyes was the lovely sunlight on the buildings contrasting with the dark blue gondolas in the foreground. The is the result of my efforts:

View accross the Canal from Fondamenta Dogana alla Salute  10"x8"  oil on board

Detail

Haidee and I in action, blissfully unaware that two minutes later
I smashed my turp glass bottle in pieces in the floor!

After this, most of us then started wandering in the little streets around the Accademia looking for inspiration and the reflections of the sunny buildings on the water caught my eyes so I went for a little study of the scene:

Reflections - Fondamenta Venier Sebastiano   10"x8"  oil on board

At the beginning

Detail

At the end of the session, the light reflections on the water had completely gone so I was mainly painting from memory.

At the end

Haidee, Roy and I finally went for a quick "nocturne" painting just alongside the canal. I planned to catch the sunset but by the time I got my painting material ready it was completely dark! We all felt pretty hardcore painting at what felt like 11 at night but in fact it was only 4 in the afternoon! Despite my pretty cool head torch light, I couldn't really see what I was doing but at the same time it probably gave a feel of spontaneity and urgency to the painting which I quite like:

The Accademia bridge at night  10"x7"  oil on board

The view as we started

Haidee and I painting with Roy's easel in the foreground- thanks Roy for the pic!

My painting towards the end

Detail

I will post soon more paintings from Day 3 and 4 so watch this space!



My paintings are available for sale directly from me or through a gallery and can be shipped worldwide. Prices depends on size and subject and generally range from £100 to £500. Please email me to check prices and availability at valpirlot1@hotmail.com

Back from Venice!

I just got back from Venice - what a wonderful painting experience it was! I had only been there once when I was around 15 years old for holiday so it was my first time there as a painter. Although it was an informal 'unorganised' trip, we were actually around 14 plein air painters there staying in various accommodations and bumping into each other during the day. I did 18 paintings during my week there - it was quite a marathon! Here is below a quick glance at my work. I will now need to give a closer look at each painting and will post them gradually on the blog with action pictures in the following weeks. Watch this space!

Painting on Piazza San Marco © Luca Girardini - Photos - www.lucagirardini.com

Painting with Haidee Summers on Piazza San Marco

Painting the Grand Canal and Salute from the Accademia Bridge

My new studio!

Please let me officially introduce you to my new studio!! I hope you don't mind but I need to share the excitement! As some of you might know, I just moved house a couple of weeks ago, and I'm very happy to be able to use the loft room as my studio. My mum visited me last week-end and we set it up together. It's now ready to produce master pieces!

As you can see I'm making the most of the space on the walls to place some boards still drying and hang my latest framed work too. I find it useful to be surrounded by my work while painting as I can take inspiration from it, steal the best bits and make sure I don't repeat the same mistakes!

My painting book collection finally found a suitable place:

(and no, I haven't started drinking, these bottles are for still life!) 

Just outside the door I hanged on the hallway landing a selection of work and prints from other artists which I find very inspiring, just the perfect invitation to go to the studio!

There is plenty of storage underneath the roof all around the room, so no more boards falling on my head while painting:

I'm loving the big velux windows overlooking the rooftops of Bath. The window gets the early morning light and is then clear of direct sunshine for the rest of the day which makes it perfect conditions to work in:

I just bought on ebay some drying trays for plates which work perfectly to dry wet boards:

They have become very useful yesterday as I took the huge task to triple prime over 40 boards in preparation for my next painting adventure:

Indeed I'm off to Venice the day after tomorrow for a week of plein air painting with a bunch of very talented painters. Can't wait! Looking at the amount of boards below, you'll probably think I'm bit overoptimistic to paint all that in one week, but it's Venice afterall! 

My grandma's kitchen

A couple of months ago, it was my grandma's 90th birthday. She is such an incredible woman and she still has more energy than the whole family together (and God knows she has a big family!). As a present I gave her a little painting I made of her kitchen in her house in Belgium. This is sacred place for the whole family as this is where my grandma prepares the Xmas dinner, makes her own cranberry jams, welcomes visitors with a hot chocolate after long walks outside, or has her breakfast staring at the window. Every object in the room has a story and this is a place where you always feel welcome. 

La cuisine à Malèves (The kitchen at the Malèves house) - 10"x12"   oil on board

Detail

For those who follow my blog, you might remember the two paintings I have done of my grandma's garden and sewing room. Click below to have a look at those previous posts:

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/my-grandmas-garden.html

http://valeriepirlot.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/la-chambre-couture-de-bonne-maman.html


I'm moving house tomorrow so maybe I'm posting this now in the hope that my new home feels as warm and homely as my grandma's place! I might not be able to paint for a while as I need to set up my new studio in the loft room - all very exciting really. I'll do a post about it when it's ready.