Venetian Canal

Venetian Canal Watercolour – Alan Reed

This watercolour painting captures the charm and colour of a Venetian canal scene. Sketchbook watercolours painted on location in 2018 were the inspiration for this particular studio work. The composition focuses on the façades of several tall, narrow buildings that rise directly from the water’s edge. The architecture is rendered in warm, sunlit tones — ochres, reds, and pinks — contrasted with the cool blues, greens, and turquoise hues of the windows reflected in the Venetian canal.

The windows and shutters, painted in deep greens and overlayed with dark shadows, provide rhythm and structure against the warm, fluid, loosely brushed walls. At the base of the buildings, the reflections ripple across the canal’s surface in a mosaic of colours — greens, golds, blues, and purples, blending in the water’s movement, created by a passing gondola.

Venice Paintings

Explore our unique collection of Venice Paintings and other paintings of Italy at Alan Reed Art Gallery in Ponteland, Newcastle, Northumberland.

Watercolour paper

The paper’s rough edges and visible texture add to the handmade, tactile quality of the piece. It could almost be a page torn out of my sketchbook. The brushwork is controlled and expressive, yet loose enough to prevent the painting becoming a slavish copy of a colour photograph. In this instance, watercolour is the perfect medium to evoke light, atmosphere, and the essence of Venice.