Another Venetian Trip

Just came back from another trip to Venice, with this time paying more attention to sketching some of my surroundings when time permitted.

The first sketch I took was from our hotel's balcony. We stayed at the beautiful Bauer Hotel, overlooking the Grand Canal.



Next up is a sketch at cafe Naranzaria, a local cafe in Campo Erberia, San Polo, also overlooking the Grand Canal. We stayed for few hours trying to get the perspective lines correct. By the time the locals started coming in for dinner, we were asked to either order dinner or leave, so we left while still giving them a nice tip for allowing us to stay for hours. Before we got kicked out, I drew almost all of it in pencil and the major outlines in pen, so managed to finish it up when I got back to the hotel.



On our way back from the Biennale we often stopped by San Marco for a cup of coffee while listening to some live music. One evening I decided to do this quick sketch. I started outlining it in pencil but the sun was setting quickly so just started sketching it straight by pen. Didn't like the outcome that much but I guess its good practice.



In our evening walks we often pass by this restaurant with beautiful seats on window edges, so decided to have dinner and do a quick sketch while waiting for our food. The food wasn't that great, but the view, as everywhere else in Venice, was worth it.



This was my second trip to Venice, for my previous trip you can find out more here and here.

Atlantis The Palm

The wife decided to book us a trip to the Atlantis The Palm in Dubai. A quick weekend trip, which we spent most of it soaking under the sun, gliding through the water slides, and floating along the river lagoon. Following our check-out, I decided to do a quick goodbye sketch of the wonderful hotel building.

I walked around to look for a good spot with a nice wide perspective. I found a jetty just next to the water sports club cabin, which I thought was perfect. It turned out to be a mistake from my part, as I was trying to sketch under the blistering sun, at 1pm in the afternoon, when it was 40 Degrees Celsius, on a blazing jetty that burned my behind, with kids hopping on and off the jetty splashing seawater on my sketchbook and causing the jetty to wobble, making it challenging to draw a simple straight line. I persevered with the assistance of the water sports club staff, who provided me with an ice cold water bottle that got me going, and some encouraging words from a curious 7 years old girl and her mother. Below is the outcome following 2 hours of enduring the above.



In the comfort of my home, in an air-conditioned room with the temperature set at 23, sitting on my recliner, I tried embellishing the raw sketch, adding some shades and colors here and there. Below is the result.

Venetian Moments

Gondola Ride: Since gondolas are one of the main symbols of Venice, I thought it would be worth it going for a ride. This enthusiastic gondolier who was eager to pose for any camera that flashed in front of him made this Venetian moment worthwhile.



Bridge of Sighs: Locally known as Ponte dei Sospiri, the bridge connects the old prisons to the Doge's palace. It is said that the name comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out of the windows of the bridge, before being taken down to their cells. During my visit, the scaffolding of restoration works on the surrounding buildings were covered with advertisements. That and the transformation of the place between day and night made this a special Venetian moment to me.




Lightly Monumental at the Egyptian Pavilion. La Biennale di Venezia - Giardini della Biennale.

The Egyptian Pavilion was the climax of my quick expedition in the Venice Art Biennale. The pavilion contained the works of self-taught Egyptian artist Ahmad Askalany and Egyptian painter, who abandoned medicine for the sake of art, Adel El Siwi. Maie Yanni, a qualified doctor who currently manages art and design ventures and promotes unknown Sudanese artists to give them international recognition and visibility, describes the pavilion's experience beautifully in this article.

She says, "Upon stepping into the Pavilion the viewer is greeted by eight monumental figures by Askalany akin to deities welcoming us into a sacred temple... The temporal dimension is emphasized by the upward structural progression. Both sculptures and paintings are monumentally big and recall the "little people" who built gigantic and great things. Thousands of years on and these magnificent historical creations still watch over us unmoved by earthquakes and the tides of change."




Moonlight (Venice, March 10, 2009). La Biennale di Venezia - Arsenale.

Created by Spencer Finch, the American's "artworks attempt to re-create his subjective impressions and scientific observations of light and color. His works take many forms, but what unites them is an attempt to transpose culturally significant or privately important moments or sites to a gallery setting."



Querini Stampalia Foundation: I saved the best for last here. This building by Carlo Scarpa is one of the many buildings that I read and heard so much about and always wanted to visit. Even though I had high expectations of it because of all the hype, the building exceeded all my expectations and was an absolute delight and the highlight of my trip to Venice. The way Scarpa's new editions to the building comes so close yet always distinguished from the old structure was so detailed that made me walk the entire exhibition with a smile on my face. I don't remember I was ever so pleased with a building like this one. The pictures I saw of the building on books and magazines, even the ones I took don't give this magnificent building justice. I thought I'd post this picture of the steel gate anyway since it was the best picture I took of the building I guess.

Greetings from Venice

This is my first day in Venice. And after a long long, really long day of walking around the city, nothing feels better than soaking one's feet in warm water. Anyway, I just had to buy an internet voucher for an hour to post this picture, which for me summarizes Venice.

What really attracts me in this romantic city is that even though it is crowded by tourists, it is really peacefully quite in here. It’s really an amazing sensation to stay in a vibrant city without hearing the chaotic noises of trains, planes and automobiles. Except for the occasional honk of a motorboat turning on a canal or the waterbuses, which you only hear when they are really close to you.

For my first day in Venice, I am captivated by the sound of the water knocking on the buildings and the beautiful scent of the sea which I love so much. Here I leave you with few words in Arabic describing the city, for those who understand Arabic:

في ديرة من أحلى المدن الإيطالية ... قعدت فيها أربعة أيام وشوية
فينيس بالإنجليزي وبالعربي البندقية ... عرفت فيها معنى الرومانسية