I decided to give myself a break from portraits* for a couple of weeks, and here’s the end product: my third Burano-inspired watercolor. My previous Burano paintings were still lifes of bottles and mussels, but this is the first time I’ve tackled the tiny, quiet island’s colorful buildings, boats, and canals. Burano’s houses are painted with vivid, gorgeous colors, and they are pure eye candy. If you ever visit Venice, it’s a perfect day trip via a 40-minute boat ride. As much as I love Venice, I miss Burano even more, and as I painted this picture I ached to return. Really, I feel like I must go back there.
I started working on the buildings at the top of the 20″x16″ painting (the pink and orange houses were a treat). The bridge and its complex railing came next, and finally I added the boats and the water. Jeff was interested to see how I was going to mimic the canal’s reflective surface; I think most people assume that paintings of water must be especially difficult. In fact, the water was the easiest part of the painting. I just painted the colors I saw, making sure the shapes at the bottom of the paper were larger than the shapes near the bridge, and I tried to keep my strokes horizontal without being completely uptight about it.
I plan to paint a few more watercolors of Burano in the near future. If you would like to purchase this one, you can do so on my watercolors page. (If you’re reading this on Monday afternoon and want to buy it, please give me a few hours to put it up there, or feel free to contact me via email today.)
* I also just finished a portrait that I can’t show you yet, as it’s a Christmas present from a husband to his wife. I’ll write about the painting after she receives it. Please let me know if you would like to commission a portrait or other painting to give during the holidays–I work fast. :)
