Beggs – Venice Evening

Probably like every other tourist in Venice, I was captivated by the play of evening light on the buildings and water, particularly this one bright wall facing west. In the painting I have tried to show the passage of light from the low sun and how quickly it was fading, just catching that wall and the tiny high windows on the right-most wall. I wanted to create a sense of an elipse of light from the low sun as the sky’s pinks started to fade, just leaving hints and traces of their glory.

I did the sky in one go (over a russety red canvas stain) and then a few goes at getting the water right. I added the distant boats (hardly more than smudges) to put the buildings back in space, making more sense of the water’s transition from close to distant water and to add some balance to the darker side of the painting.