Copying the Masters - February 2015

I recently attended a painting class focused on copying the Masters works of art. George Seraut lived to the age of 31 in the mid 1800s in Paris and is most famous for his "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". While this is one of my favorite paintings of all time, and I've seen it in all it's splendor at the Art Institute of Chicago, the subject matter of this class was "The Eiffel Tower". Seraut was known for his meticulous style of layering dot upon dots which today we would refer to as pixilation. I can only imagine how tedious of work this was and while my class was only three hours I grew tired of dotting.

You see I am a watercolorist by heart and I love the free and flowing form of water media. This was a true test of my "artistry" as I developed more patience and appreciation for different styles and mediums of paint. I was very pleased at the idea of not having to think of "what should I paint next...." or even what colors/tones I would used. It was all right in front of me.

The image for this blog is my final work and I have to say I'm pretty excited. It's so different than anything would create which makes me smile a little bigger. It's true what they say, that attempting to copy a master is really freeing and very educational. Go ahead, give it a whirl.

~M