Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, Italy

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.

Canal Boats in Narbonne, France

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.

The Covered Bridge at Narbonne, France

This is the only bridge in France covered by buildings (like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence) If you stand in the spot that my other painting of canal boats in Narbonne was done from, and turn your hear to face the other way, this is what you see. The water was perfectly still like a mirror.

When the Canal du Midi was built, the merchants of Narbonne realized that they would be bypassed and the town would whither and die, so they built the Canal de la Robine to connect with the new transportation system.

oil on canvas

18″w x 24″ h

$750.