Vampire Of Campo Mosca - stage 1

While I wait for some paint to dry on a new The Big Sky painting I though that I would get on with another monochrome. It is potentially the first in an occasional series called Vampires Of Venice this one being "Vampire Of Campo Mosca". This series (if it becomes that) came out of noticing the photographic quality that the earlier monochrome American landscapes had and in the back of my mind had set off the train of thought about painting something that looked kind of photographically real but had something impossible in it. At first I toyed with the idea of surreal juxtaposition and then put it on the back burner while I got on with some American landscapes and it was only when I was going to be fiddling with my thumbs waiting for the paint to dry on the other painting that I have on the go at the moment that I thought of starting  this as in the meantime (actually in the bath!) I had come up with some ideas about vampires in Venice. The figure will be painted soft and indistinct against the Venetian square at night lit by one lamp on the wall.
I used the usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin. Oil on linen 16" x 12".