Water Taxi to the Salute
An oil on canvas of 24 by 14 inches, painted in 2021, depicting a water taxi crossing the Grand Canal toward the domed basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. The vertical format suits the subject well: the long, narrow proportions compress the horizontal spread of the canal and draw the eye upward toward the church's silhouette, while the wake cut by the taxi traces a diagonal that gives the composition its forward momentum.
The Salute, completed in 1687 to a design by Baldassare Longhena, has anchored the entrance to the Grand Canal for more than three centuries, and its octagonal drum and paired volutes have made it one of the most painted landmarks in Venice. Placing a working water taxi in the foreground rather than a gondola or a tourist vaporetto gives the scene a contemporary, lived-in quality, the city as it actually moves rather than as it is posed for visitors.