From Travel Pictures To Art, Part 2

   Venice has a mix of many styles of architecture, while the local color is influenced by the temperature of day and patina of the varied surfaces. People ask me what artist/artists inspired my pieces. I can say the Synthetic Cubism paintings by Picasso and Brague, the collages by Kurt Schwitters and the photo montages by David Hockney
                                         

   Tintoretto © 2012 Rafael Ferran

My photo Tintoretto was taken in the Sestiere di Canaregio on the northern end of Venice. The taller building in the center is the home and studio of that great Venetian painter. Today tourist can find lodging there. Also the Botega di Tintoretto, an art school is located on the street level. I collaborated with a master printer there, but that will be for another blog in the near future. I used the photo as the  reference for my piece Buildings.

Buildings © 2012 Rafael Ferran

Buildings is an abstraction derived from a restructuring of the three point perspective in the photograph.. The transfer of sky into separate blue areas works well with the fragmentation of the structure into distinct architectural details, e.g., windows, gutters, roof tops, interior rooms, doorway entrance, and street.  The materials utilized are photographs, store coupons and magazine reproductions. They were assembled and then enlarged with the Xerox copier. The image was transferred onto archival paper. Paint color was added for some details. 

Canareggio © 2012 Rafael Ferran

                     

Canareggio is a photograph taken of the backstreets of Venice, Italy. I was inspired by how the light broke up the structural design into distinct patterns. 

     Wind © 2012 Rafael Ferran

For Wind, I restructured those elements, e.g., windows, laundry, cables, sky, roof and shadows, so that I could initiate a process that allowed me to shift away from subject matter towards enhancing the abstraction.

What is important to me during this process of removal is that I am able to put into visual terms the feelings and sensations I had experienced while in those places.