Needing a ”cityscape” for my all too quickly upcoming show, I contemplated choosing  one from Stockholm’s Old Town. As Stockholm is called “the Venice of the North”, I grabbed the chance to paint a reference I got from a WetCanvas colleague, Joel (aka jlloren). Thank you, Joel, for the use of a ref from “the Stockholm of the Mediterranean”.

After doing a few notan-studies (which I’ve lost in the frenzy of hanging a show), I decided to work out the composition with two colour sketches. They are reversed compared to the original (which is right). In the first, I kept the overhead arch, and the gondola is in the distance.  This sketch felt too crowded, as if there were barriers for the viewer to pass. While it gave a sense of narrow canals, I was not entirely happy, as I “hit my forehead” on the arch, and the darks were not connected, but scattered:

 

In the second sketch, the arch is gone, the building on the left side is gone, and the darks are joined. I moved the gondola closer, and kept more of the tricky architecture of the canal-side part of the Doge’s Palace. While this has more space – more room to breathe – the bridge was not anchored on both sides, and I had a strong object leading out of the picture. On the other hand, what leads out also leads in. But no, this was not it:



I decided to combine the best of the two sketches, flip the picture back to the original so I would get a strong diagonal leading up towards the right – a cheery and dynamic vector, in a tranquil scene. I also decided the painting needed greater depth, as the canal is long.

Then came the funny part: I discovered that I’d edited out the Bridge of Sighs, the Ponte dei Sospiri, which was that bothersome overhead arch! So I named the painting after the visible bridge, Ponte Canonica.

First, the light and shadows were blocked in, underpainted  – establishing the quantity of light --with a greater amount of dark details than I usually start with, as I wanted really deep shadows in the white-ish vertical foreground. (Forebuilding?...):



Next, colour is worked in on top of the underpainting, in order to become more “right” – working on the quality of the light:

Next I focus on using colour temperature to build depth and volume:

More colour variations, working on details, almost finished:

 

Lastly, I work on details, finishing the painting. Here's a close-up of the brightly glittering water in the right foreground, showing layered strokes, and broken colour.

And the finished painting can be seen at the top of this post, and in the Works section in the navigation bar.

Yes, it sold, hot from the easel! Sometimes the old and well used motifs are the best! It was really fun to paint my take on it. A common enough motif, interpreted in my personal unique way.