lagoarthurstudio 8/7/14 lagoarthurstudio 8/7/14

What are you painting?

I'm only about 9 hours into copying this hand study of a portrait by Gerard Soest at the National Gallery of Art here in Washington DC. The reaction to my copy by the public has been extremely entertaining and at times has had me in stitches, like today. I guess visitors are not used to seeing a person paint only a small portion of a painting in the collection, and the oval shape I chose to emphasize the dramatic swirl of the dress and the gesture of her hand is unexpected and definitely throwing people off. But what seems to be the icing on the proverbial cake is that it appears to people that I am not painting the picture in the right color. Um, what gives?!! [Insert Valley Girl tone here]

Well there are some really good reasons for all the choices I have made so far in regards to this painting. The first decision I made, that of doing only a hand study of the larger painting is because I only have the months of July & August to copy and I thought by narrowing my subject I could get more accomplished in that time. Second, the oval shape is an intentional decision as far as the composition. In addition, if I have more time, I will paint another oval of her other hand to have a matching pair. And lastly, the colors you see before you are just the underpainting known as a "grisaille". The areas that are more grey are called a "closed grisaille" meaning they include white, plus the umber I used previously and prussian blue to achieve the overall modeling and value relationships. Those are the areas that I painted today. I will indeed get around to the actual color of the painting, eventually, in thin glazes of color. It is the way this painting was painted and since I am more of a direct painter, learning this technique is part of what drew me to the painting.

Below are some of the amusing things I have overheard/ or been asked directly while painting in order of frequency:

"What are you painting?" (Um, a hand and her dress....)

"Are you trying to paint abstractly?" (Yes, actually. A strong abstract design is the basis of all realistic painting)

"Dad, I don't get itttt!" (Snicker)

"Esa mano esta horrible/That hand is horrible" (Said by someone who doesn't know I speak Spanish. Ouch? ;)

I'll end this post by saying that painting is a process that is sometimes not self evident. So hang in there with me, eventually you will be staring at the exact doppelganger of that hand. Just don't hold your breath waiting.

lagoarthurstudio 9/6/13 lagoarthurstudio 9/6/13

At the Finish Line

I am literally one session away from finishing my copy of Chardin's "Still life with game" in the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection. I basically have a little more refinement in the rabbits left and then I am calling it finished. Good thing too because I'll be putting my copying status on hold at the NGA while I take a full day of classes with Robert Liberace starting in a couple weeks.

lagoarthurstudio 3/7/13 lagoarthurstudio 3/7/13

Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848-1900 @ the NGA

Last Friday I went to the National Gallery of Art (NGA) to work on my copy of Largillière’s Canoness only to discover that it had been taken down and put in storage. Apparently this happens every once in a while. I was actually OK with its disappearance because to be honest, I was getting bored of the Canoness. Soon I will be starting on a new copy of a still life by Chardin which is located in the same salon. Fickle, I know--but I am sure Ms. Canoness will get over it someday.

You may be asking yourself what I did with my suddenly wide open schedule that day. Hello! I went to see THE Pre-Raphaelite exhibit, of course! And WOW was I happy I did. This exhibit has managed to acquire some of the most famous Pre-Raphelite paintings ever painted, such as Millais' "Ophelia" and Rosetti's "The Annunciation" along with so many others. New to me is the work of William Holman Hunt, his "Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus" is now one of my new favorites. The caliber of this exhibit is so good that I plan on seeing it all over again--something I rarely do.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) founded by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1848, grew to include not just painters, but poets and critics in an effort to return back to a more moral sentiment in art & literature during the Victorian period. It was essentially a reaction to the modernization and industrialization of England.

"The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite" (Wikipedia)." The PRB embraced historical genre painting in particular, by depicting stories from the Bible and their native Arthurian legends.

I have included in this post several images of the famous works from the exhibit to whet your appetite (click to enlarge). As if you weren't hungering for it already. Enjoy!

"The Beloved ('The Bride')" 1865-6, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

1851-valentine-rescuing-sylvia-from-proteus-oil-on-canvas-98-5-x-133-3-cm.jpg

"The Awakening Conscience" (1853). William Holman Hunt.

"The Lady of Shalott" (1886-1905) by William Holman Hunt