CANALETTO may be the master of Venetian landscape but one talented pensioner is proving a dab hand at the art almost 300 years later.

Kenny Small, from Rushyford, County Durham, never dreamt a trip to the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle five years ago would change the course of his life.

A talented painter, he had stopped to admire a large painting by the Italian landscape painter Canaletto called The Bucintoro Returning to the Molo.

At the time, the retired tool maker was eager to paint larger canvases and when he read a newspaper article about Canaletto shortly afterwards he embarked on a quest to create his own version of the masterpiece.

The 81-year-old said: “The article ended with the words ‘you may even be tempted to pick up a paint brush.’ I thought it must be omen and decided to go for it. It took me about three years to complete it, painting for a few hours a day.

“It was hard and there were times when I questioned why I was doing it but I kept on going.”

Canaletto’s work was painted between 1730 and 1739 and depicts the Bucintoro, the state barge, returning from the Sposalizio del Mare ceremony to the quayside in front of the Doge’s Palace in Venice

Mr Small set his 7ft by 5ft painting at the start of the ceremony and tried to evoke a sense of excitement among the figures within.

He has named his finished work Debut of the Bucintoro Ascension Day 1729.

“I wanted to make it friendlier and more animated,” he said. “I have painted all my life. It is in my blood; my mother used to paint and my father was artistic too. I just love getting a blank canvas and transforming it into a landscape, bringing objects and people to life with your paintbrush.”

Jane Whittaker, head of collections at The Bowes Museum, said: “We were fascinated to learn that Mr Small was sufficiently inspired by one of The Bowes Museum’s Canaletto’s to create his own version of the masterpiece, which I’m sure will generate a good deal of interest.

“To dedicate several hours a day over three years to the project is certainly testament to his own words that ‘you’re never too old’.”

Mr Small would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in exhibiting or buying the painting. Contact him by email on kenny.small@aol.co.uk