…and I’m beginning to wonder if maybe I’ve wasted my whole life up to now, because I've never been to Venice before. I always thought I knew what Venice was like – there are so many paintings and photos and films that feature it. But believe me – NOTHING prepares you for the reality of the place. The scale of the city, the light and the way it changes, and of course the overwhelming beauty of everything you look at. If I had to choose just one defining quality of Venice (aside from the spectacular, ubiquitous beauty) it would be the human scale of the place. No buildings over 4 or 5 stories high, no advertising posters or billboards, and above all no cars. So the only noises you can hear in the streets are the echoes of human voices, human conversations, laughter, someone whistling in the next street.
The Lion of St Marks and me. The Lion is the one with the seagull – I’m the one with the hat
Oh well, this isn’t a travel blog and even if it were it would take me several years just to scratch the surface of what Venice has to offer. So – back to ordinary, everyday Aberdeenshire. Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to cope with the brown, withered end of winter by looking at how animals fit into this bleak landscape – in other words, playing around with ideas of camouflage. Here’s the first one in the series – a pheasant (female) in a field of long, dead grass.
The camouflaged pheasant
It didn’t quite turn out as I wanted: I think I should have put more embroidered grass in the background rather than depending so much on painted grass. But it’s good enough to go ahead with
Décidément Mia, j’aime beaucoup ce que tu réalises
Je me surprends à attendre ton courrier comme on attend une amie
Merci du partage
Mia, sounds like there may be many more trips to Venice in your future. Glad you had a wonderful trip. Love your pheasant with or without grass.
Hi Mia, Sounds like you had an awesome time in Venice and the sights that you were able to visit were phenomenal! The colors that you chose for your pheasant are wonderful and I like the painted grass with touches of embroidery. Gives it a 3D appearance with the pheasant and grass in the forefront of the scene.
I’m glad you loved Venice.
And I love your pheasant. I like the simplicity of the few embroidered grass strands with the painted background. It gives a definite mood of sparsity and wind-swept, hungry end of winter.
j’aime beaucoup cette broderie, surtout les différents points sur l’oiseau
Effectivement, la broderie de l’herbe manque un peu en quantité, mais le tissu peint est suffisant
félicitations
Jacqueline
Cute photo of you! Thanks for sharing. It sounds like a great experience for you and made me move Venice higher on my list. The pheasant is beautiful and it’s face has such a perfect expression – you are too critical of your own work!
Your pheasant is just perfect…wouldn’t change anything about it.
Glad you enjoyed Venice and love your photo. We visited several years ago and you are right to say that nothing can prepare you for the reality of the experience of being there.
Glad to hear your trip was a success! As for that lovely pheasant, wonderful as it is, but a bit of embroidered grass with colors or perhaps textures found in the pheasant would reinforce your camouflage theme.
Mia, love the photo of you. As someone said earlier, you are too critical of yourself. We are always our own worst critic. I think the amount of embroidered grass is just about right. The pheasant is gorgeous. Have you thought of doing a pheasant with the greening of spring. Would be an interesting difference between the two.
Memories, memories! Sounds like Venice is one that brings out the dreamer in you. Perfect to hold on to forever. You take a lovely photo.
I like the effect of painted and embroidered grass. Enjoy looking at your pheasant. Good job.
The pheasant just looks like it is standing in a field of straw. Took me me back to when I lived on the prairies in Aberta Canada
Mia, sounds like you are in “Heaven on Earth”. Have a great time and take lots of pictures to share with us that will never go there….
thanks…
Lovely photo of you! I’ve been to Venice twice and it really is unique.
I think your pheasant is beautiful as it is!