Tag: landscape

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, Italy

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This is a view of the Santa Maria della Salute from the Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, Italy, during Carnival. Susan always wanted to go to Carnivale in Venice, and one year, Easter was very early, so we could arrange Carnival in our schedule. We were staying in a hotel right on the Riva degli Schiavoni, recommended by a friend and neighbor in Cape May. Every morning, we’d go walking in our costumes, attracting lots of attention and having hundreds of Japanese tourists take their pictures with us. I went as a giant Turk and Susan went as an eighteenth century Frenchwoman.

My aim in this painting was to convey the crush of the crowd on the Riva degli Schiavoni and the other-worldliness of the pink light shining on the dome of the Salute. I used much more linseed oil than usual to make a rich, fat paint to carry intense color.

36”w x 24” h
Oil on canvas

$950.

Cloud at Ocean Street Beach

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This was a giant solid cloud that appeared over the beach one day in autumn, only fifty yards from Leith Hall, at the foot of Ocean Street. Crowds gathered to look up at it and I thought that it would make a great painting of weather.

It’s painted very solidly, with thick paint, as the cloud was not the usual wispy, insubstantial thing, but a big heavy mass.

Oil on canvas
30”w x 24”h

$850.

Cape May Wetlands

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This is a small painting that I did years ago of the Cape May wetlands between Wildwood and the mainland of New Jersey. The mud flats in the foreground were next to Ocean Drive and the bunch of trees on the horizon are adjacent to the banks along route 47.

I put the horizon very high to try to capture the vastness and flatness of the wetlands in a small canvas. The color is laid on in washes to reproduce the beige and green of early spring.

oil on canvas

24″w x 18″h

$900.

Canal Boats in Narbonne, France

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This is the Canal de la Robine, which I have painted in other views. Here, right in the middle of Narbonne, the canal boats were moored along the banks, and the low winter sun made long shadows. The French love to torture trees into artificial shapes and the plane trees in Narbonne are the same as those in Cape May, New Jersey, but trimmed into urban decorations.

Oil on canvas

28”w x 22”h

$850.

Olive Grove Beja Portugal

This is one of a pair of paintings of the olive grove on the grounds of the castle in Beja, Portugal. In this painting, the trees are painted as hundreds of individual leaves, rather than the usual way of treating the whole leaf-mass as one volume with light and shadow. The other painting of this pair is painted differently.

Oil on canvas

20”w x 16”h

$700.

Carcassonne II, France

Castle of Carcasonne, Languedoc, France, Impressionist cityscape/landscape

Carcassonne is a castle town on a hill in southwestern France. In the 1200s, the Pope and the king of France agreed to conquer this part of France. The locals were Langue d’Oc speaking Cathars. The Pope declared Cathars to be heretics and the French and Papal forces killed millions of Frenchmen. France got vast new territories and the Pope got to kill off millions who wouldn’t accept his authority. The fortified city of Carcassonne still survives from that period.
This is one of two small paintings of Carcassonne. I was trying to capture the otherworldly, medieval look if the town in late February.

Oil on canvas
16” x 20”

$700.

Olive Grove II, Beja Portugal

This is one of a pair of paintings of the olive grove on the grounds of the castle in Beja, Portugal. In this painting, the trees are painted as masses of light and shadow, and some leaves are added afterward to create the impression of leafiness. The other is painted differently.

Oil on canvas

20”w x 16”h

$700.

Temple of Aesculapius in the Pincio Park, Rome

The Pincio Park, or the gardens of the Villa Borghese, are the Rome equivalent of New York’s Central Park. We’d often sit in our favorite café in the park to write Rome Secrets or CityTravelBlog. This is the Temple of Aesculapius in the park. It was built in the early twentieth century as an ornament for the little duck pond in front of it. It is actually just a temple front, with no building behind.

This is one of the many classical focal points in the park created in the early twentieth century as a green relief in very urban Rome.

Oil on canvas

36”w x 24”h

$950.

The Palace of Monserrate, Sintra, Portugal

This is the Palace of Monserrate, a quinta (estate) in Sintra, Portugal. It is Victorian Gothic and spectacular inside. Sintra is a beautiful town near Lisbon and is surrounded by palaces and country houses. Susan and I have visited Sintra several times and we particularly love Victorian Gothic since we live in a Victorian Gothic cottage ourselves.

oil on canvas

30″w x 22″h

$750.