Venice Carnival

Venice at carnival time has a particular magic. It's as if the indulgence of the city's architecture and history, spawns a fantastic response in its inhabitants and visitors alike. Suddenly beautifully clothed and masked figures appear everywhere; adding exciting accents of colour to facades, interiors, alleys, squares, in gondolas and on canal banks.

I enjoy the life this can bring to my paintings and the opportunity to imagine human incidents and relationships between elegantly masked men and women, clowns, fools, jugglers, acrobats, characters from the 'Comedia del Arte', and even turbanned and veiled figures from the East and the Arab Worlds. Venice has always been an exotic meeting place of  East and West.

Carnival time now extends over three weeks but in the eighteenth century it lasted as long as six months!  Venice was then the world's most famous and fantastic place of festivity. St Mark's square became known as the most elegant ballroom of Europe.

Personally however, as much as I lke carnival time, my first love is for the architecture, the art galleries, the music and the very special light and the enchanting mood of the city itself.