I had unfinished business with the previous "Vampires of Venice" painting in that I wanted the eye drawn to the light area and then you notice the vampire afterwards but due to the square format the vampire was too near to that area so it didn't really work. With this one I chose a longer rectangular format so that I could place the vampire much further away from the area that I plan the viewer to look first. The vampires in my "Vampires of Venice" series are of the Max Schreck variety seen in the original Nosferatu and I try to paint them as though they are more of an apparition and insubstantial as they live in a world different to our own. I make the figure up as I go along and are drawn in spontaneously with no real reference which is odd for me as I am not that good a figurative artist.
Venice is always portrayed as a romantic city where couples go for their honeymoon etc which I have never really understood as to me Venice is a mysterious place particularly when you walk around it at night away from the more touristy areas and it is relatively deserted and quiet with just a single light barely illuminating an alleyway, the light hitting the crumbling facades, the whole thing looking like a stage set.... and then I can imagine strange ghostly beings wandering the fondamentas and passages of this slowly sinking city. The Venice of movies like "Don't Look Now"...
Oil on mdf 20" x 12". This is too big and too much work to sell on Every Day Original for $500 so I will either put the previous one on it or the upcoming Orientalist one that I am starting this afternoon.
There is a short progress through this painting including the colours I used in previous posts on this blog.
Mark a great piece of work wish I wish I could have... Well done to you
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