Gondola in Venice

Teacher Painting

"Gondola in Venice" 11x14" Oil on Canvas by Richard Robinson after Claude Monet.

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Student Painting

"Monet's Gondola at Dusk" Oil on Canvas by Aurelia Sieberhagen

Really interesting colour combination Aurelia - it's made such a nice shimmer with the blue and orange complements. Some really nice brushwork there too with the strokes in the foreground bigger and more impasto helping create more depth. The shape of the boat is not quite right - could do with some more attention. Don't forget the detailed iron prow too - that's a nice feature to include. I love the really subtle colour work in the church. If you spend a little more time working the edges between the lights and darks in the foreground reflections and reshaping the boat this painting will hit the ball out of the park.

Student Painting

"Oil after Richard's Monet" 11x14" Acrylic on Canvas by Candi Hogan

Nice work Candi, I think you've captured something of Monet's work here, especially in the church and sky. You've really done a great job of copying my painting. The only advice I could give on this one would be to strengthen the darks in the gondola and remove some of the reflections in its middle which are confusing the shape somewhat. Great work!

Student Painting

"Monet in Venice" Oil on Canvas by Colin L. Williams

Hi Colin, there's some great paintwork going on in here - all that shimmery broken colour in the sky and water - terrific! I like that you've thought to include the spiralling red line so many of the poles in Venice have - a nice touch. Another nice touch was adding the little gondolas in the distance. The drawing of the big gondola could use a lot of fixing whereas you've drawn the distant buildings admirably well, though the oranges you used there are too dark which spoils the illusion of depth. At the front of the gondola you could have transitioned the colour from light to dark better (orange > red > burgundy > dark blue). I'm in two minds about your foreground water. I could either implore you to use techniques like mine or congratulate you on using various techniques as Monet often did. It depends on what you were trying to achieve. Do you think you succeeded? If so, well done, if not, take another look at the demo video.

Student Painting

"Monet Study" 12x16" Acrylic on Canvas by Jane Cerami

Great work Jane. The warm glow coming off the church is great contrasting against the cool blues and greens elsewhere. I also like the grey you've used in the sunlit prow of the boat which does seem more realistic than my attempts to add punchy colour there though I do miss the strong colour note. Your drawing is great - nicely done, because it's so easy to lose the drawing while applying the paint so loosely. It's a shame you left speckles of canvas showing through in places because it breaks the illusion somewhat in this case. Better if you'd toned the canvas warm or cool beforehand. Overall, really nice work.

Student Painting

"Gondola at Twilight 2" 10x12" Acrylic on Canvas by Stuart J. Gourlay

Stuart, good to have you back - though you've sure not been idle as I can see from all the paintings you've uploaded recently. I love the design of this painting! I guess you spotted that I flipped Monet's church over to suit my painting. I prefer yours in some ways because it reads left to right for us Westerners. Your colour work is good, although like mine it's beginning to look like a black gondola dipped in a pot of orange paint rather than glowing with the fires of a sunset. You could have transitioned that orange better through reds and crimsons to get to the dark blue/black to help with that. A similar transition could have helped in the sky too, instead of just mixing the warm yellow base a cool zenith together which invariably makes mud. You did well to subdue the background with glazes in order to let the foreground dominate. You could have helped this further by lightening all the background by a value step or two. It's good to see the variety of edges you've used - quite soft in the background versus sharper in the foreground - nicely done. Overall it's great work Stuart - just a few things to think about.