2 minute read
Cartolina da Villa Rose di Judy Parkinson
Following on from Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, enjoyed much success in painting the architecture and the people of Venice. His sister married Tiepolo whose influence may have encouraged Guardi to use more vibrant colours and to loosen his style, in contrast to the tight photographic precision of Canaletto. Guardi’s views or vedute are notable for his renditions of the spectacular effect of the Venetian light and its compelling reflections on the water, stratagems picked up with verve in Rankle’s paintings.
In the mid 19th century JMW Turner visited Venice and according to Tate Britain, ‘created some of his most magical and luminous works’. His Venice work is as accessible today as it was at the time in the remarkable ways he used Venice, the fragile, floating, sinking city, as a crucible for meditations on light, colour, reflections, life and death. It is this cipher-like quality held by Venice that Rankle has seized upon in order to suggest the environmental danger the city faces in the 21st century.
Advertisement
Turner’s near contemporary, Richard Parkes Bonington was, like Rankle, influenced by the old masters, but completely modern in his treatment. He specialized in huge skies and expert handling of light and atmosphere just as Rankle does in his dialogue with the classical and eccentric architecture, and the light bouncing over the never still waters of the Laguna.
On Rankle’s frequent visits to Venice he noticed two remarkable aspects of the Venetian landscape – the startlingly bright light reflected from the sheen of the sea during the daytime highlighting all the seafront buildings and at night the rolling threatening blackness of the Laguna’s lashing waves often cascading over the dockside crazily, intermittently floodlit by electric lights from the city and the boats. The city seems to become part of the sea on some days in autumn when the waters flood the pavements and alleyways.
The commission is complete, the works installed and the message is all too clear on the walls of Isola delle Rose. The paint is certain. The future is a blur.
Judy Parkinson St Leonards-on-Sea 2015
Study for Alluvione di Nero I 2014 Oil, pigmented ink jet on canvas 40x50cm
Alluvione di Nero I, 2014 Oil and pigmented inkjet on canvas 120 x 150 cm
Alluvione di Nero II, 2014 Oil and pigmented inkjet on canvas 100 x 100 cm
Alluvione di Nero III, 2014 Oil and pigmented inkjet on canvas 100 x 150 cm
Alluvione di Nero IV, 2014 Oil and pigmented inkjet on canvas 100 x 100 cm
