Self Portrait of the Painter Painting S. Maria della Salute, Venice

In the previous painting of the Zattere vaporetto stop I proposed one can learn to read a painting like learning to reading a book or to calculate numbers. Think of this small painting of Zattere as a short story not a painting. That is the first step to seeing a painting. First the location is known with certainty --- the vaporetto stop at Zattere, Venice. Second one knows it is a vaporetto by the presence of the bow line. If you do not know the name of the knot, how about "bowline on a bight." This painting even has poetry! Final an insight to be answered, what time of the day is this?  Look at the shadow of the line. Mid morning or mid-afternoon --- depending on the orientation.

Above is a second but surreal story line.  This is a my self portrait of a young painter painting Santa Maria della Salute in 1964. The painting is painted in 2015 on the Fondamenta in front of San Giorgio Maggiore. I first visited Venice to study art and architecture after dropping out of Pratt Institute for year. So this is not really a Portrait of the Young Artist as a Young Dog.

Paintings of course do not all tell stories. Often a painting is simply a landscape scene or still life of random objects. If you want to spend more than 15-seconds looking at a single painting, look for the story first. In my next posts I will try to provide some insight into composition, color theory and various painting styles.

Thank you for looking and I encourage your comments. Ted