When I was sixteen, I went on exchange to Italy .   It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life and I fell in love with the place.

In 2003/4, I returned and spent several months there, two of which I spent in Venice .   I had studied Venetian History in High School and was entranced by the idea of a once-glorious maritime Republic slowly sinking.

In many ways, the city seems not to have left the eighteenth century, and its winding lanes harbour wonders at every turn.

When I was working on this exhibition I had intended to paint images of ‘real' Italy – none of the red roofs, ochre walls, green vinyards and Tuscan hills that represent only a fraction of this lively and vital nation.   But as I progressed, I felt that I needed to focus on Venice to do it proper justice.  

So, for two months I wandered the lagoon city, soaking-up as much as I could of what I saw, trying to get a sense of this most bizare and funereal place (sometimes I got desperate for activity and would spend hours sitting at the bus terminal, listening to the traffic).

Working from memory, I have created a series of canvases that try to capture some of the beautiful things that Venice has to offer, beyond its watery thoroughfares - something of the life in the city.  

I painted things that I saw.   Real things, happening at the time I was there.   Things that could happen to anyone.   Things that probably a million other people noticed, but possibly few have deemed worthy of recording.   The canals are beautiful, the churches wondrous, but so is the young woman cleaning the windows of the late-night pizza shop, and so are the crumpled old communists waiting for the revolution in their club house. And the old flower-seller dispatching the day's un-sold roses into a nearby canal, and the Venetians eating in Macdonalds…

This is my Venice , I hope you like it.