Friday 3 August 2012

EDMs in Venice

I've been trying to do an EDM challenge a day and felt that if I had left it for a few days, I would get out of the habit, so I tried my best to continue while visiting my family in Venice. At the airport I bought myself some children's markers and drew my foot using the markers as watercolours. The lady sitting next to me was very intrigued and we struck up a conversation. She was an artist who used mainly pastels. She looked in her seventies and has been travelling the world since her husband's death ten years ago. She's been everywhere, China, Vietnam, Africa. What an amazing person.










For my second challenge, I skipped ahead to # 265, draw your neighbor. Beach life in Venice has always included very vocal card players (my dad used to be one). They take their games very seriously indeed. A couple of huts down from ours there was this group of players. The lady on the right never plays, but watches the others for hours, quite funny really.













At the back of the first row of huts, and in front of the second row, there's a line of trees. Every single tree was bearing a sign, so my sister explained to me what had happened: people in the second row of huts physically and verbally attacked people from the other rows who were sitting under this line of trees, claiming that the shade was theirs. Eventually the beach management put a stop to the fighting by hanging a sign on each tree that reads, 'All the CAPLI customers can enjoy the shade of the trees'. Only in Italy!
EDM #26: Draw anything you like. Shell beaches are quite rare, I believe, and Venice used to be a fantastic shell beach. When I was a kid I could collect an amazing variety of shells. I would paint them with nail polish, so that they always looked shiny as if still wet from the sea. Now the variety is much less, but I sill like to walk along the shore and find small treasures. Drawing them, though, is a real challenge. I wish I had a magnifying glass to see all the details and all the ridges and crests. I found myself cursing Fibonacci, but just a little bit.

2 comments:

JD said...

That's a cool challenge. I think I'd probably travel the world if I were that woman, too.

franvisions said...

She travels with a group of other women in their golden years. I guess you worry less at that point, trust that things will be ok, and go and explore the world.