The artwork ‘The Three Doges’ was shown during the Fragments of Cities exhibition at the Palazzo Albrizzi in Venice in July 2014.

Whilst on a tour of Italy in October 2011 we visited Venice. One of the joys of Venice is walking through the city at night because the atmosphere is so beguiling. Our tour guide, Julie Richey, recommened a book on the ghosts of Venice to the group and we agreed to each create a mosaic based on a subject from the book.

The book, Venetian Ghost Stories, written by Alberto Toso Fei,  is full of subjects that would be suitable for interpretation as mosaic compositions.  I choose the first story, ‘The Three Doges’.

The pieces shown in the intial design are all left over shapes from a previous mosaic. The pieces would normally have been scrapped but I kept them. The background represents the Venice of the sixteenth century.

The writing in the scroll ‘Veritas’ relates to the story of one of the doges. Each doge has a story about their unfortunate death and I’ve tried to capture each one within the overall design.

I wanted the frame for the piece to be unique and an element of the work. I met with Neil Rogers, a highly talented local woodturner and explained what I wanted. Neil sourced the ideal block of wood and then worked the surface as I requested and finished off the effect through burning in.

Here is the piece about halfway complete.