The Venetian Skyline

One of my favourite bloggers, Brandi at Brandi Girl Blog, recently tweeted about organising a Color Palette Blog Walk.  The theme was Achievements — anything you’re proud of, big or small.

§

Taking in the Venetian skyline

Here is a photograph that I took when I was 10 years old, on a family visit to Venice. At the time, my dad was working in Yugoslavia (modern day Slovenia) and my mum, brother, and I were spending a little time there visiting him. I’m sure it was my mother, the artist, who suggested a long weekend in Venice, just 4 hours away by car, so off we went. At some point, we were on a speedboat whizzing through the canals when I saw a beautiful sunset behind buildings in a perfect Italian palette:

I do believe it was the first time in my life I asked someone (in this case, my dad) if I could use their camera to take a photo: I wanted to capture the beauty of the sunset and the way the light fell on the buildings and made them glow (the image above is a photo of a photo and doesn’t quite do it justice).  It was the first time I ever eagerly awaited the development of camera film, to see what my button-pressing yielded.

To my delight, the photo made its way into a family photo album.  The only thing I found disappointing was its tiny size — perhaps only 3″ x 5″ (8 x 10 cms).  I admired it for years — not just because it was a photo I had taken, but to savour the moment of the magical light, the spray of the canal water, the tinny buzz of the speedboat, a gangly little girl in a blue and white striped dress cradled by her dad who helped her figure out the camera.

Painting the Venetian Skyline

We still haven’t technically completed our California move — meaning, most of our worldly possessions are still in storage somewhere on Long Island. Truth be told, after more than a year there isn’t much I’d salvage from a flood or fire: just our computer, a few books, photo albums, letters, CD collection, and paintings.

There’s one painting in particular that I can’t wait to see again: a canvas that I was in the middle of painting before I had to box it up.  Even though it’s unfinished, I’m proud of its progress for a number of reasons. First, the scale of the canvas (30″ x 40″ / 76.2 x 101.6 cms) is larger than anything I’ve done before. Second, I normally paint people, so to paint something as technical and intricate as a skyline is definitely me out of my comfort zone. Third, I’m working from a photograph that’s smaller than my hand, so there’s a lot of imagining to transfer my interpretation of the Venetian skyline:

And so, this is my simple story of achievement: I am proud of my 10-year-old self for seeing the fleeting beauty of the moment and taking her first photo.  And even though it’s not yet finished, I know one day soon I will hang this painting proudly in a prominent place.  But, mostly, I am proud that I made good on my promise to paint that photo someday.

§

Be sure to check out my fellow bloggers’ colour palettes:

Rebecca at Electric Atom by Atomic Cowlick
Ronica at Bad Jones Rising
Rose at Heroine Jewelry
Cynthia at Ornamental Style
Jennie at Snapdragon Diaries
Gloria at Colour your day happy
Dave at Fresh Rag
Francesca at Francesca Watson
Miriam at Der Hund der Philosophin
Libby at Current Observations
Lakshmi at Studio Lakshmi
Brittany at The Home Ground

§

I’ve been so busy of late that I appreciated the chance to be told what to blog about…  So here’s a chance for you to let me know what you’d like me to write about!  It could be a theme, a random word, a colour, a kind of food… Help a sistah out and gimme some inspiration below!

Like Be the first one who likes this post!

Tagged as: Art, Colour, Friends & Family, I Love..., Italy, Painting, Photos, Sites I Like, Social Media, Venice