Carlo Scarpa is my favourite architect and on a recent trip to Venice we were lucky enough to see some of his work at first hand. The two levels of the split height garden at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia are reached via a pair of small, square copper steps that have verdegris’ed over 50 years into plates of beautiful colours. For this painting I took a photograph looking down directly over the steps and then, once back in the studio, painted the majestic colour patina that the copper had created.