Venice is a place which has proved an inspiration to painters in generation after generation. Its palaces and churches house a stunning collection of religious masterpieces - from miniature Carpaccios to overwhelming Tintorettos.....the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation houses one of the great contemporary collections.....and the Biennale provides a focus for really leading edge work from around the world. But what makes Venice so completely distinctive is that apart from being a treasure trove of art, the place itself is a work of art. A succession of architectural styles from exotic Moorish and flamboyant Baroque to austere Classical ...all embroidered together in narrow streets and piazzas around the canals so that every corner of the place is a new composition of shapes, riotous colours and interplays between water and stone. So much is familiar about Venice that the problem with any camera angle is that it often only takes a gondola, an early morning mist, a crowd of pigeons, an unavoidable campanile or a Carnival figure to tip the whole thing over into cliche. Which must be the challenge for any artist. Its all been done and seen before. Its fascinating to see how  artists whose work we know so well in other contexts bring their own particular way of filtering and interpreting life to bear on La Serenissimma. Whether it be a search for chaos and the unexpected, vibrant colours, cool elegance, shafts of penetrating light or the theatrical and majestic...its all there.

We have held a number of exhibitions devoted excusively to paintings of Venice in recent years. They are always enormously popular with our clients. There will surely be more such shows in the future because the work just keeps coming. Apart from which Venice is my most favourite place on earth and I love it with a passion - both the reality and  the depiction.