Painting in Venice

"Can you recommend a notable art school in Venice? And hotels near by? It's just a little research and I'm not familiar with the area." -- Kim

Venice is an expensive destination, but it was beautiful and wonderful beyond my dreams. I'd go back there tomorrow if I could for the architecture, the reflections, the opportunities to paint, the sense of history... A few locations, such as the Rialto Bridge and St Marks Square, can teem with tourists, but a block or two away from these and you can feel as if you've the city to yourself. There are plenty of corners to set up an easel or to sit with a sketchbook.

The hotels part is fairly easy to answer because Martha Bakerjian, About.com's Guide to Italy, has a list of recommended hotels in Venice. When I was in Venice, we stayed in a self-catering apartment (booked through a London-based company Venetian Apartments) in the Dorsoduro district. There's a small but well-stocked supermarket in this part of the city, plus various market stalls, so buying food was relatively simple.

As for an art school, there's the Academia Della Belle Arti (website only in Italian) and the Venice International University offers a PhD in Theories and History of Arts. Numerous artists offer painting holidays in Venice and you'll likely encounter painters at work across the city. These are just a few of the painting holidays I found doing a quick web search:

• Coombe Farm Studios
• Lucy Willis in Venice, The Artist magazine
• International Artist, David Taylor in Italy

If you'd like to get a feel for painting in the city, British artist Ken Howard has a DVD entitled A Vision of Venice in Oils which shows him working in various locations.

See Also:
• Pages from my Venice Sketchbook
• Basic Travel Information for Venice, Italy (From About.com's Guide to Italy)
• Venice Webcams (including St Marks Square)

^{Image: © 2008 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}