Street Scenes
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Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Around about a decade ago, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was attracting more publicity than the bank probably wanted, mainly due to problems they were having at the time with bad loans and losses. This general view of the bank’s historic headquarters accompanied many of the press articles at the time, but in the…
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Murano – Canale San Donato
Venice is lovely, but quite intense. The nearby islands of Murano and Burano offer a respite of calm – both the building and the tourist density on these islands is noticeably lower than the slightly misnamed “Serenissima”. This painting is fairly faithful to the photo that I took during our visit to Murano, in that…
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Fünf Höfe, Munich
I was rather taken with the greenery hanging from the ceiling, and indeed with the view and colours of the whole space. I suspect that I was supposed instead to have been taken by the range of shops, but getting me interested in shopping is not easy, as my wife will readily attest! I think…
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Roadside Banana
I have had a banana plant growing indoors in a pot for well over twenty years. Although it has continued to produce new leaves, in all that time it has only managed to grow to about half a metre in height! By contrast, throughout South-East Asia we saw these plants grown to many metres in…
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Robinia Tree
This tree sits in front of our house, and whilst I often notice and appreciate its bright green / yellow foliage it doesn’t normally stand out from the surroundings. However, the other day when I saw it standing nonchalantly in front of some rather dark and angry storm clouds, I was rather taken by the…
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Marina Bay Sands – Singapore
This is quite a building! They only finished constructing it in 2010 but already it seems to be quite an icon for Signapore, which just maybe was the idea when it was built. I have heard it described as a (cricket) wicket, which accurately summarises the basic shape of the structure, but somehow misses out…
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Venice – Grand Canal
In my art group I have a reputation for drawing “a lot of detail”, or sometimes even of drawing “too much detail”! Often I think this criticism is justified, and I do try to limit the detail in most my artwork. Sometimes however I feel that the detail is justified, and I’m happy about every…
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Venice by Lamplight
There is an almost infinite choice of vistas and objects to sketch in Venice. Nevertheless originality is still rather difficult since almost every wannabe artist who has visited the place in the last few centuries has had a go! So here, without any claim to originality whatsoever, is one of my contributions. This scene is…
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Bruges Arcade
There are many beautiful sights and buildings in Bruges, some quite famous and some not. There is for example the big market square, dominated by a tall belfry tower and filled with cafes and tourists. There is also this arcade, which is just around the back of the building which supports the imposing belfry. This…
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Shadows in Sienna
Sienna in the sunshine is also very full of dark shadows, which to me suggested the use of a very stark black and white effect, drawn here using a vector graphics package called Linearity Curve. The vector graphics technique creates straight and extremely sharp edges, which gives a rather striking effect. However, it must be…
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Durham
If you know Durham you will know this is not the way most people get to the city centre. It is an altogether more peaceful route into town, accessible by car only on the odd day or two when so many students are arriving to start college that a one-way system has to be imposed…
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A Gate in York
York has many streets which are called gates – and this is a drawing of one of them. This gate is straighter than many, although perhaps not quite as straight as I have drawn it. I think too that there are often many more people walking down this street – perhaps everyone is elsewhere because…
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