Vegetable Boat

Here is a painting I did recently in Venice. It is of the boat where they sell vegetables near my studio. It was quite difficult finding a place to stand because of the narrow walkways next to this canal, and the number of people with shopping carts buying vegetables! As always this is a challenge to paint outdoors because the people of course are constantly moving, and so you have to capture the gesture very quickly. The other difficulty is after you have planned your composition in a thumbnail sketch (I use notan sketches ), the groupings of people change, and you have to be careful you stick with your original conception of the design.