Venice Paintings
by
Pat Hartman
Arielle Haze views
beach art
Scott Shellstrom
Venice art
In the Old Days:
Windward Avenue
In the Old Days:
Night Scenes
In the Old Days:
Canals, Bridges
In the Old Days:
Gondolas
In the Old Days:
the Lagoon
In the Old Days:
Miniature Railroad
In the Old Days:
Market Street
In the Old Days:
Mecca Buffet
In the Old Days:
Scenic Railway
In the Old Days:
1921 Amusements
In the Old Days:
Cabrillo Ship Cafe'
In the Old Days:
Venice Pier
Unpainting the Town:
lost murals
Helen K. Garber photos
Art at the Rose Cafe'
New Venice Sign
Venice-Based Artworks
Note from the webslave: this painting was offered on eBay with a thoughtful and knowledgeble commentary from the seller, Mike Coleman of Boca Raton, Florida, who says, "Venice is a special place, I have been there a few times and have always enjoyed my time there."
This painting is on the wrong coast and perhaps this auction will get it back to where it came from as I think it will have some significance to people from California.
I am no expert but I can tell this is a simple rendering from an unskilled artist and I cannot find anything on the artist F. Robinson.
He could have been a worker in the oil fields or a local person trying to make their way as an artist. He could be a she for all I know but the workmanship and the subject matter looks more like a man's point of view.
My interpretation of this painting is of a post-industrial period piece that uses a view of the Venice Canal made famous in the early 1900's as a tourist destination and its image was on many a post card in an idyllic manner with graceful gondolas floating by copying the California city's Italian namesake.
Instead of a beautiful scene this very canal's edges are lined with floating boxes and debris and the beautiful background is filled with oil derricks and pumps totally taking the romance of Venice and its beautiful arched bridges and idyllic beauty and changing it into a scene of what modern industry had caused in the name of progress.
Is this social commentary?
Or, is it what the artist saw and drew regardless?
In 1985 Ray Bradbury wrote a book about Venice California in the 1950's named Death is a Lonely Business and the first paragraph describes (minus the circus cages) a Venice California that resembles this painting.
Whether this can be considered as an early "Eco-disaster art" or it's just something that someone named F. Robinson saw and painted I don't know but this piece says a lot to me when I see it.
Mike Coleman
editioned prints are available
Luna Garcia
One of the concessions on the old pier or boardwalk was a silhouette parlor, where customers bought picture outlines of themselves.
Buddha Cat on Lotus Leaf Teapot from Gary Steinborn, Venice Clay, 2005
A Jeffrey Stanton photo, 1970s
