Watchers on a bridge, Venice

These watchers on a bridge over a small Venetian canal are barely visible. This is a painting about the relationship between the fixed and the fluid. Acrylics on gesso board – 41 x 31 cm.

£95.00

These watchers on a bridge over a small Venetian canal are barely visible. This is a painting about the relationship between the fixed and the fluid. It is about reflections and shadows, light and shade.

Venice proper consists of almost 120 islands, but there seems to be little agreement over the number of bridges. There are about 400, depending on the area included. Some authorities include the Giudecca, others include the outlying islands of Murano, Burano, Torcello and Mazzorbo. The bridges used to be flat when horses and carriages were still in use. The more familiar arches we see now were designed to permit the passage of boats.

This scene interested me at a number of levels. It comments, in part, on tourists (I think one of the shadows is mine). In the canal, there is a discarded plastic drink bottle and other litter. It is easy to get angry with people tossing away their rubbish, but they are legion. Perhaps we should be angrier still with the corporations who continue to sell single-use plastic.

I also liked the contrast between the metal of the railings, the brick and stone of the buildings and the flowing watery reflections. After I had painted Watchers on a Bridge it occurred to me that the sky was like a birth canal – a pleasing thought.

Here’s another building in the Venetian lagoon, a ruined church. Or perhaps this view of the lagoon and San Giorgio Maggiore.