...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