New Venice Canal Watercolour Painting: Tra i Canali, Venezia, Ruga Vechia, Italy

  Buongiorno! I have recently completed my 6th and 7th Venice series watercolour painting. What a journey it has been!

 Tra i Canali, Venezia, Venice Canal, Italy

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 12.2" x 16.1"

 

 

 Ruga Vechia, Venice Canal Italy

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 16.1" x 12.2"

 

Here are my other Venice Canal watercolour paintings:

 

 

 Venice Grand Canal Gondolas — Before the Nightfall, Italy 

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 16.1" x 12.2"

 

 

 

Venice: A Timeless Passage, Italy 

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 16.1" x 12.2"

 

 

Venetian Corte del Sabion, Venice Canal Courtyard, Italy 

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 12.2" x 16.1"

 

 

Rio Tera Secondo, Hidden Passage in Venice, Italy 

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 12.2" x 16.1"

 

 

A Quiet Canal in Venice,Venice Canal, Italy 

 

 Watercolour Paper size: 12.2" x 16.1"

 

If you're interested in purchasing any of these original paintings, and many more, please visit my shop Denise Wong Arts on Etsy to explore the entire collection.

Venice in Watercolour A Collection of Wearable Art

Venice in Watercolour

A Collection of Wearable Art

Each dress in this collection begins with a watercolour painting — Venice as I have come to know it through countless hours of study. The canals, the palazzi, the light on the water, the quiet corners where time seems to hold still. Now these scenes live on fabric — wearable paintings for those who carry Venice in their hearts.

No. 01 — JUST RELEASED

Tra i Canali, Venezia JUST RELEASED

Among the canals. The dress captures Venice in its complexity — the layered architecture, the interplay of light and shadow, the sense of wandering through passages where water and stone have spoken to each other for centuries. A painting of depth and discovery. This dress has just arrived in the shop.

USD $155

Shop this dress →

No. 02 — NEW DESIGN

La Serenissima, A Quiet Canal in Venice

The Most Serene Republic — Venice's ancient name. This dress holds the quietness of those back canals, the ones tourists rarely find. Terracotta buildings rise above still water, and the light falls in soft tones of cream and ochre. It is a painting of peace, of solitude, of the Venice that whispers rather than shouts. This is a new design in the collection.

USD $145

Shop this dress →

No. 03

Venice Canal — Historic Architectures & Gondola

The heart of Venice's grandeur. This dress features the palatial architecture that lines the canals — the carved stonework, the arched windows, the bridges, and always the gondolas that move through this world like dark brushstrokes. It is a full immersion in Venetian splendour.

USD $145

Shop this dress →

No. 04

Corte del Sabion — A Hidden Courtyard

A place where tourists rarely wander. The *corte* is a private Venice — a small courtyard where water meets stone in the most intimate way. Lanterns glow against walls that have held centuries. This dress is for those who seek the Venice beyond the guidebooks, the spaces where the city still breathes quietly.

USD $155

Shop this dress →

No. 05

Rio Tera Secondo — Venice

A narrow passage in Venice, where buildings lean close and the water catches light between high walls. A street sign marks the corner — Rio Tera Secondo, a quiet stretch most visitors never find. This dress captures that hidden, intimate side of the city, painted exactly as it stands today.

USD $155

Shop this dress →

No. 06

Venice Grand Canal — Gondolas Before the Nightfall

Before nightfall. A row of gondolas, their deep blue covers pulled tight, rest along the Grand Canal. The sky above glows gold and peach as the last light drains from the horizon. It is the quiet drama of transition, the beauty of dusk settling in, the way Venice holds you even as the day fades into memory.

USD $155

Shop this dress →

Each dress is crafted from premium knit jersey — soft, breathable, with a graceful drape. Available in sizes 2XS–XL.

Browse the Complete Shop →

Pages of Italy Podcast: Episode 1 Welcome to Italy, Episode 2 What Italy Gave the World — And Who the Italians Are

 Buongiorno! Somewhere in May 2026 I began doing voice recordings for my Pages of Italy Podcast. It is a fascinating project where I get to dwell deep into such an amazing country — Italy — studying its history, culture, food, landscape, and people. On 21st May I published my first episode: Welcome to Italy. In this episode, we open the book on the country itself — a wide, unhurried portrait of Italy, from the canal-threaded streets of Venice and the cypress hills of Tuscany to the Italian lakes, the volcanic shores of Sicily, and the grandeur of eternal Rome.

 

And today the 2nd Episode is live! Episode 2: What Italy Gave the World — And Who the Italians Are. In this second episode, we ask what Italy truly gave the world — from the espresso to the piano, the bank to the university — and meet the Italians themselves: fiercely regional, warmly human, and unlike any other people on earth.

 

Birds & Wildlife Collection · Denise Wong Arts

Wear the Wild —
Birds & Wildlife Art Midi Dresses

Each dress in this collection begins as a watercolour painting — observed, studied, and rendered by hand: Puffins on coastal rocks, penguins on sun-warmed shores, a scarlet macaw on a branch, a kingfisher poised in silence.

The Atlantic Puffin Dresses

No. 01

Atlantic Puffin on the Cliff

A single puffin perched on coastal rock, painted in crisp watercolour. White background, bold all-over print. The black-and-white plumage against the clean ground is quietly striking.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 02

Atlantic Puffin In Flight

Wings spread, mid-air — the puffin caught in a moment of pure motion. An all-over print of puffins in flight across a white ground; dynamic, airy, and unmistakably handpainted.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 03

Two Atlantic Puffins — Grassy Cliff

The pair face each other in a field of summer grass — a painting full of warmth and companionship. The deep forest green bodice meets the luminous painted skirt in a design that feels genuinely wearable as eveningwear.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 04

Atlantic Puffins — Autumn Grass

The puffins stand in the warmth of late-season coastal grass — their vivid orange beaks and bold markings holding their own against the amber and ochre of the painted ground. Richly textured watercolour background; the orange beaks and yellow feet are perfectly at home here.

USD $120

Shop this dress

---

The Penguin Dresses

No. 05

African Penguins — Boulders Beach

Sun-warmed sandstone, turquoise water, and a colony of African penguins — a full-scene all-over-print that wraps the entire dress in the atmosphere of the Cape coast. Vivid, joyful, and utterly distinctive.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 06

African Penguins

The same characters, now scattered across a clean white ground — their black tuxedo markings and pale blush patches rendered in confident watercolour strokes. Graphic, elegant, and quietly playful.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 07

Gentoo Penguin & Chick

A mother Gentoo and her fluffy chick — painted with extraordinary tenderness. The large-scale placement on the skirt makes the painting the centrepiece; the small repeat on the chest reads like a signature detail.

USD $120

Shop this dress

---

The Tropical & Coastal Bird Dresses

No. 08

Scarlet Macaw

Scarlet and cobalt against a deep forest green — the macaw in full painted glory, all-over across the dress. Rich, bold, and unmistakably a statement piece. The colour combination is genuinely rare in wearable art.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 09

Eastern Bluebird

Cobalt-blue wings, a warm terracotta breast, and a delicate branch — the Eastern Bluebird painted in precise, luminous watercolour. Against white, the colours sing.

USD $120

Shop this dress

No. 10

Kingfisher

The kingfisher in full — iridescent blues, burnt orange, and a dagger beak. The large-scale placement on the skirt is as close to wearing a painting as a dress can get.

USD $120

Shop this dress

About the Fabric & Fit All dresses are crafted from premium knit jersey — soft, comfortable stretch, with a graceful midi-length drape. Boat neckline · Long sleeves · Fitted waist · Flared skirt · Side pockets. Sizes 2XS–XL. Please refer to the size guide in each listing; if between sizes, size up.

---

Every dress in this collection is printed from an original watercolour painting.

Browse the Full Collection

Venice Canal, the 7th Venice Series Watercolour Painting (Update)

  Buongiorno! The water and facades are taking shape, with more detail and contrast of the painting still to come. This is work in progress on my latest Venice canal scene.

Venice Canal, the 7th Venice Series Watercolour Painting

Buongiorno! This is my latest Venice Canal watercolour painting, and it is the seventh piece in my Venice watercolour series! It is still a work in progress.

Can you guess the colour of the water? The water in Venice's canals can be quite dramatic and full of surprises! Wait until I complete this piece, and you'll know the answer.

As for now, il colore dell'acqua rimane un piccolo segreto veneziano.

Venice: A Timeless Passage - Original Watercolour Painting, Midi Dress

 The original Venice: A Timeless Passage, soon to be available in my shop!

 And this is my 6th Venice series midi dress! I hope you will like it! You can find this dress in my shop Denise Wong Arts. I wish you a good weekend.

My Encounter with a Woodpecker Family

For more than 20 years, I had never seen a single woodpecker visit my garden, which is like a small forest. Kingfishers and owls, yes—but never a woodpecker.

Over the past few weeks, I have been watching a woodpecker family appear in my garden. They even made a hole in a tree, and I saw young woodpeckers living inside it! It has now been more than a week since they disappeared. I am not sure whether woodpeckers are migratory birds.

To me, being able to watch woodpeckers up close—sometimes only 10 feet away—on many mornings and evenings was simply unforgettable. I watched them fly, cling to tree trunks just as woodpeckers do, and drill holes in search of food. It was a remarkable experience.

The first time I saw one was several weeks ago on a morning when I was not wearing my glasses. I faintly noticed a bird clinging to a tree in my backyard. I immediately thought it might be a woodpecker because I had never seen any other bird pose that way. So I concluded that it must be a woodpecker, and it turned out that I was right! It was a woodpecker family raising their young in the hole they had made.

The sounds of woodpeckers are adorable and also quite loud at times. I have heard three different kinds of sounds from them. One is the soft sound they make while flying, almost like cotton or a cloud moving through the air. Another is a quiet sound, like whispering, as if the bird is talking to itself. The third is a very loud call that almost sounds like a scream. Three different kinds of sounds from a single species of woodpecker! What a blessing it has been to observe and study the life of a woodpecker family!

Ruga Vechia, Venice Canal, Watercolour Painting - Almost Done

  Buongiorno. This is nearly complete! This is the 1st post about this painting. What a journey it has been. And yes it is an evening scene of Ruga Vechia in Venice, a corner that has been a living, working part of Venice for nearly a thousand years.

Venice: A Timeless Passage Art Print, Updates

Venice: A Timeless Passage

A new watercolour art print, now available in my Etsy shop.

---

Venice: A Timeless Passage — original watercolour by Denise Wong

A gondolier on the Grand Canal. Sunlit palazzi in ochre and cream. Water the colour of aquamarine — shifting, restless, alive.

This is Venice: A Timeless Passage, my latest Venice watercolour painting, and it is now available as a museum-quality print in my Etsy shop.

The painting captures a gondola mid-passage on the Grand Canal, with the grand palazzi of Venice rising behind it. I painted the water with a lot of movement — blues and greens that change as the light shifts — and kept the buildings in warm, sun-washed tones. The gondolier and his passengers are silhouetted against all that brightness, which gives the scene its quiet drama.

Shown here framed in a living room setting.

---

About the print

The prints are produced on archival Japanese paper — thick, museum-quality stock with excellent colour fidelity and a subtle texture that suits watercolour beautifully.

Paper: Archival, Japan-sourced · 189 g/m² · 10.3 mil

Sizes: 11.69″ × 16.54″ (A3+)  |  16.5″ × 23.3″ (A2)

Prices: $70  |  $80

Shipping: Worldwide shipping available

These are open-edition prints, which means there is no limited run — you can order whenever you like. I will soon be making all my prints available in these two sizes at the same pricing, so do browse the full shop if you are looking for other Venice or Italian landscapes.

If you have any questions about the prints, shipping, or anything else, feel free to message me through Etsy — I typically respond within a few hours.

Shop Venice: A Timeless Passage →

Browse all prints and wearable art at denisewongarts.etsy.com