The First of My Italian Series Paintings Is Now Completed.

"Ponte Veicchio," 2009. 18 x 36 x 1.5 inches. Oil on canvas. Unframed with painted edges. Wired, ready to hang.

The city of Florence (Firenze), Italy is divided by the Arno River. Of its several bridges, the Ponte Veicchio (The Old Bridge) was originally built in the 14th. century with shops and other merchants along the span. Later, the Medici built a private corridor above the shops to link what is now the Iffizi to the Palazzo Pitti. They converted the shops to high end goldsmiths and jewelers, which remain today. The river is often used by local rowers for practice.

This painting was developed from several photographs of the bridge and the surrounding buildings. I set the sun coming from the left at a fairly low angle. The rowers were captured at another time and positioned to provide some "life" in the foreground. Actually, there are quite a few heads of other people to be seen appearing above the river edge walls on both sides.