>Peyote-Stitched Water

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Sinking St. Mark's Square (Venice, Italy). Bead embroidery on painted canvas.

24" x 36" (32cm x 46cm). Work in progress.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! It has been crazy hot here in the Boston area - we are in the middle of a heat wave! I don't mind though - I like it hot. It reminds me of my trip to Venice, Italy! So for the past couple days I've been working on my beaded St. Mark's Square painting. I painted in the gray buildings on the right side of the deteriorating Campanile. They are actually empty lots where these buildings used to be. The buildings no longer exist in my painting because they too deteriorated & sunk into the Grand Canal. It is my intention that the right side of the painting look very contemporary with its hard edges - perhaps to represent the future of Venice. The left side of the painting is meant to look more traditional representing how Piazza San Marco once looked. My beaded Basilica & Campanile will represent how it actually looks today...

Now, I must work on the beaded water which will fill in the lower section of the painting. I started working in 3-drop peyote stitch. I am using several different green and gray seed beads. I plan to make many different pieces of beadwork that I will eventually stitch directly to the painted canvas. These will represent the acqua alta which floods St. Mark's Square every year. How do you think it will look?