The Golden Hour - Venezia

 

Gregg Chadwick

The Golden Hour - Venezia

30"x24" oil on linen 2023

Do you cherish a city or place that takes your breath away? For me, Venice, Italy has been a world of wonder since I first visited. My oil on linen painting "The Golden Hour" was inspired by my time over the years in the magical city of Venice. Poised between sea and land, Venice is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine in a watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to coexist.History's shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys.

The color and light found in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation, have been revelatory for me.

Their works glow like light upon water. This effect of reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, captures me. I continue to study and adapt Venetian painting techniques in my paintings.

See this painting and more in my studio at Art at the Airport on September 30, 2023 from 5-9pm.

Kindly RSVP in advance:

https://artattheairport.eventbrite.com

Art At The Airport is made possible by Art of Recovery, an initiative of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, santamonica.gov/arts/artofrecovery.

To learn about upcoming Art At The Airport events, visit: https://www.artattheairport.org/

A Labyrinth of Stories

by Gregg Chadwick

From the Giardini

Tiziano Scarpa’s “Venice Is a Fish: A Sensual Guide” provides a unique, almost magical, means of exploring the canals and alleyways of Venice. Be warned, this is not another guidebook that will lead you on a shopping excursion from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto Bridge, but instead Scarpa’s volume is almost a book of spells that will enchant you and subsequently haunt you. Scarpa grew up in Venice and the ghosts of his past flicker in and out of our view as he leads us through the labyrinth of stories that is Venezia. We embody the feet, legs, hearts, hands, faces, ears, mouths, noses, and eyes of those who have come before us. Their senses conjured by Scarpa summon us to a dance of time. We meet Casanova and Vivaldi, Titian and Veronese, Ruskin and Maupassant.

Venetian Water

Scarpa reminds us that for centuries, each viewpoint in Venice has been recorded in verse, paint, and song. The weight of beauty as much as the high water (alte acqua) threatens to sink this illustrious city. Scarpa’s splendid volume acts as a literary life raft to lift us and carry us through the Venice of memory, dreams, and decay.

*photos by Gregg Chadwick

A Painted Journey Down the Grand Canal

Canaletto's The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, painted around 1738, provides the viewer a gondola ride down Venice's Grand Canal. Compare the 18-century city to the way it looks today in this video produced by the Getty Museum in honor of the painting's recent acquisition.

Music: Antonio Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in C major (RV 447), Advent Chamber Orchestra. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Barcarole

Gregg Chadwick
Barcarole
14"x14" oil on linen 2012

The Venetian Night

Gregg Chadwick

La Notte

14"x11" oil on linen 2012

La Notte, my latest painting, was begun shortly after I returned from my latest excursion to Venice, Italy. Venice, poised between sea and land, is a place where light, shade, color, and reflection merge and recombine in the city's watery environment. In this mirrored world, past and present seem to coexist. History’s shadows slide in and out of darkened alleys and slip along narrow canals.


The color and light found in the artworks of the Venetian painters Bellini, Carpaccio, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo, seen up close in the city of their creation, is always revelatory. These artist's artworks glow like light upon water. This effect of reflected, sparkling light bouncing off canals, is called gibigiane in Venetian dialect. The liquid nature of transparent oils glowing from within, as if light lived within the pigment, seems to fix this quixotic glow onto canvas.