Recovering in Paris

I don't think I've quite recovered from Venice yet. I was cruising online this morning for the first time in what feels like weeks (must be 10 days), and I had to look at this lovely bit of dreaming.

Apparently the population of Venice is falling: fewer and fewer people will actually live there full-time, it being so full of tourists, the upkeep on a palace (should you happen to have a palace darlings), being extortionate as the place slowly sinks, taking your fortune with it....

But a gal can dream.


I mentioned that we were over at the Giudecca having our picnic, and I found this site about John Singer Sargent's sketching trips in Venice and out to the Giudecca.

John Singer Sargent was an interesting painter: when I first came across his work, it was easy to dismiss it as chocolate-boxy portraits of the upper class. And then I went to an exhibition in London and I decided on the spot that the man was a genius. He'll dob on dashes and lines of paint, and a quick strip down the middle, and from a normal viewing distance you would swear it's a fold of silk. It's lush, and so talented as well as skilled.

I love the use of contrast in this portrait, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK.

There are paintings in many collections worldwide: too many to list here, but here are some of the sites I looked at.
- Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
- Harvard University Art Museums, US
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US

Venetian blinds

I think I need shutters for my eyes. They got a little overloaded in Venice, and it might take a day or three to recover.


I had an idea that on this trip I would sketch and doodle a great deal, however, there's so much to see (and it's all rocking up and down with the motion of the water bus, if you're me) -- that in the end I wandered around in a daze, allowing my camera to do all of the work.

Gondolas near the Rialto (in the background you can see the bridge). Venice was somewhat quieter than we understand it usually is, lucky us, so a lot of the gondolas were parked up while the tourist traffic was slow. I love the black, blue and silver of the prows and the repeated shapes. It's a classic curve.

J. took this photo of the colours of the poles - I'd love to try to include those red and white stripes into a composition in fabric....

Much as Venice is a trove of patterns and ideas, I find that most of them are so rich, so completely decorated, gothic and baroque, that I was looking for quilting ideas in the little corners, where I could focus on one motif or design.


Like this cherub under the landing step of one of the great palaces.


Or this wall sconce, presumably for a massive fat candle, and the plaque of the lion behind. Can you imagine this in candle light?



And how about the designs on these gondola prows in the Naval Museum? (A fantastic place, by the way, if you want to see loads of models and real carved gondolas from the 18/19th centuries).


But finally, I think this was one of my favourites: we took a boat across to the island called the Giudeca, to get away from the tourist souvenir stands. We sat on the edge of the canal and dangled our feet while we ate a picnic of bread, cheese, meat and a bottle of fizzy wine (no-one's driving in Venice!), in front of this fantastic building.



Wouldn't you just love to sing from that balcony, looking out across the water?