This large contemporary painting has been produced for my forthcoming solo show. The painting is highly textured and the affects have been achieved using sand, oil and wax on canvas. The inspiration came from a fantastic faded crumbling fresco on a Palazzo facade which faces onto the Grand Canal. The subject matter of the fresco itself was too far and faded to be clearly distinguishable although it was clearly religious and in a Renaissance style. Wanting to recreate this 'impression', I choose to use an image which would also reflect upon the religious and artistic cultural history of Venice itself. Using a little artistic liscence, I've used detail from Titian's 'Assumption' from the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

see "Fresco Facade" on Jo Sheppard's website