I was in Venice for a couple of days last week, where I spectacularly failed to capture any of the beauty of this place. The trouble is that the beauty of Venice is rather hard to capture on a little phone (ok, it’s a huge phone, but it is still a phone, and therefore little compared to the grandeur of Venetian architecture). Plus, I am not really much good at architecture: I don’t have the patience for it.

So I drew a few of the tourists. Largely from memory as each one is seen only for a fleeting few seconds. In other words, I made it all up… I did, however, come back armed with ideas… and masks. Masks have been making their appearance in my ‘proper paintings’ for years now, so there is no reason why this will not continue, but now I have some ‘authentic’ versions to ponder.

Tourists in Venice

Sadly, I saw only one cat in Venice. I am told there used to be lots. All the dogs are micro-sized though so perhaps, in the spirit of Venetian masquerade, they are really all cats in fancy-dress…

A micro-dog in Venice

Oh, and the title of this blog comes from the fact that (I am told) 1% of all the world’s population visits Venice each year.