“Today we Paint the Canals of Venice” : European Adventures of a Plein Air Painter
Biassio Plaza
Ciao! We woke this morning to the melody of church bells and the laughter of young children playing soccer in the nearby plaza.
Capuchino and Croissants for Madame in the Garden
Our host brought us croissants and americanos in the garden for breakfast. We then strolled amongst the tourists through an ancient maze of shops, cafes, churches, basilica, and plazas in the sunshine taking pictures and marveling with the tourists.
Our Italian Grandma
We met a mask maker who beckoned us behind the counter to share her art with us. She spoke very little English and us not nearly enough Italian but we all agree we love eachother and will stop to visit often.
Gelato Stand in our neighborhood
We could not resist an icy lemon gelato to cap off the day and this is where we befriended a photographer from Chicago who admired our paintings and we his photos. He offered to take our photo by the Grande Canal. What a treat. We stopped long enough to buy a lacy parasol to protect us from the sun at the suggestion of a savvy shop keeper before finally making it back to our hostel to pick up our painting packs.
By the Canal with the Chicago Photographer
Our painting materials now in hand we headed back out to create art in the street. Exposing our artistic process for all of Venice to see. It feels equal parts exhilarating and terrifying to open up my easel, in this place, at this time, in front of this crowd. Oh boy! This is what we came for.
As soon as my brush touches paint to canvas the anxiety renames itself creative energy. Pain becomes relief. Blocking out my surroundings becomes focus. Crowds come and go. I forget to look over my shoulder to see who is watching. Laurie and I giggle when strangers ask for selfies with us and our art when there is so much beauty around to photograph. Though Laurie with her magnificent art and me with my fist full of paintbrushes do make a picture worthy spectacle.
One of the best parts about Plein Air Painting is how many people cheer you on. Universally people enjoy watching the artistic process. By the time the light began to fade we were plenty proud of our paintings, many passer-bys from all over the world had stopped to praise us and connect to our social media.
We felt so brave that we walked our still wet paintings right inside the studio of a local artist because we liked his work so much.
All 7 feet of him greeted us with a smile and grace. His beard nearly touched the floor of his studio and I couldn’t help noticing the resemblance to Gandolph the Great. He liked my work and asked me if I was a teacher. He told me “an artist must be part of a team. Like a football player, an artist cannot achieve her highest ambitions alone. She must share and learn with her team. “ The ancient artist, as I am calling him, was a fourth generation artist who lived and worked in the Venician studio we stood in just as his grandfather before him and the grandfather before that. His words of wisdom and his booming voice have stuck with me on repeat. This experience alone was worth the cost of the ticket.
It was dangerously close to dark now, and we had already our fill of after dark wandering in the streets of Venice, so we rushed straight back to our hostel, waited our turn for the bathroom that we shared with the rest of our floor, took a shower in the SMALLEST bathroom imaginable, and fell fast to sleep not even knowing that tomorrow we would find the portal!
Keep Reading and find out what our heroines do when they find “The Portal” : European Adventures of a Plein Air Painter.
