“You do not see with the lens of the eye. You see through that, and by means of that, but you see with the soul of the eye.”



John Ruskin
(1819-1900), English art critic.



The Grand Canal, Venice
John Ruskin

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage



[I stood in Venice]
George Gordon Byron



I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs,
A palace and a prison on each hand:
I saw from out the wave her structures rise
As from the stroke of the enchanter’s wand:
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me, and a dying Glory smiles
O’er the far times, when many a subject land
Looked to the wingéd Lion’s marble piles,
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!



She looks a sea Cybele, fresh from ocean,
Rising with her tiara of proud towers
At airy distance, with majestic motion,
A ruler of the waters and their powers:
And such she was–her daughters had their dowers
From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers:
In purple was she robed, and of her feast
Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased.



In Venice Tasso’s echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier;
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
And music meets not always now the ear:
Those days are gone–but Beauty still is here;
States fall, arts fade–but Nature doth not die,
Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy!

The Piazzetta, Venice

JMW Turner
Photograph: National Gallery of Scotland

Drawing is “going for a walk with a line.”






Paul Klee (1879-1940)
painter and graphic artist




Paul Klee (German, 1879–1940)
Introducing the Miracle
[Vorführung des Wunders]
1916/54







I would say that art is more like taking the eye for a gentle stroll.



I’d chosen Venice as a destination because I wanted to study the Tintoretto’s, gaze in admiration at the Titian’s and see the fabled light for myself. I returned with 160 frames on my camera, admittedly many of these are more memories than potential subjects but the master of Venice Rio stood out as a composition because I liked the overall effect, temporarily overlooking that perspective drawing is my least favourite element of any subject.



The aspects that were obviously appealing to me were the dramatic contrasts of the deep shadows and brightly lit boats. The shadows were challenging in themselves because they could easily degenerate into a dull and boring surface. It was important to the overall feel that they retained an interesting texture without appearing to be just walls that were a darker colour; they needed to seem ‘unlit’ but visible, to contrast and frame the bright highlights in the middle ground. It wasn’t until after I began that the subtle complexities of the underlying structure started to reveal themselves










Venice Rio








I like the way there are small highlights in the plants and details that are picked out in a way that encourages a visual route around the surface that echoes the more dominant route of the shadows. The challenge of these lights was that they needed to remain a supporting echo to the very dominant highlights of the boats and parts of the bridge.



The bridge in itself was intriguing because it appeared at first glance to be square across the Rio but is in reality at a very irritating angle as far as perspective is concerned. Another aspect that I hadn’t noticed initially was the tendency for the buildings to be slightly wonky (technical term). This created quite a dilemma for me whether to aim for accuracy where it could so easily look like my perspective drawing was flawed or straighten them up a bit and know that I hadn’t been accurate; I settled on my favourite solution of ‘near enough’ as being about right.



Another aspect that is significant to the whole composition is the right hand side of the bridge as there are a number of elements that keep directing attention towards this area of the picture.



One of the technical discoveries I’ve made from this visual exploration is how using a variety of marks can create a quite separate element of composition. For instance, the dark areas in the foreground are built up to suggest the various textures, then overlaid with more vigorous pencil work to create a subtle sense of energy as if the shadows were a physical form; this is then contrasted against the more controlled and precise areas of pencil work that create areas of calmness and these varieties of marks form a counterbalance to each other.



Venice Rio was finished around midnight the night before I submitted my portfolio to become an Associate member of the Society of Graphic Fine Artists, so I haven’t actually sat and had a good look at the finished drawing yet.