I’m truly sorry I’ve not done anything in the last couple of days. I’m working through proposals at work (to pay for my art!) and skin cancer to boot, but last night at 3ish, I made this video of recent art (going back to October (ish). I’ll get creative again soon! I kind of want to do a full length video of all the artwork I’ve done, but it would be significantly longer than 2 minutes – more along the lines of an hour. Maybe over the holiday weekend.
Vermeer
Girl with a Clever Hat
Yep, it started as yet another take on my favorite painting Twee tronijnen geschildert op sijn Turx by Vermeer aka Girl with a Turban aka Girl with a Pearl Earring.
My original idea was to do something along the lines of “Call Girl with a Pearl Earring” but abandoned that idea early on.
I also decided against doing a copy of a girl who’s been dead for three hundred years and change. I needed to bring her to the 21st century to stand on her own.
Fun facts: I learned that during the restoration of the #painting, they discovered the background was emerald green, instead of black, so I threw that in there. I also kept the lack of eyebrows, the long lashes that had faded over time, and of course the timeless expression.
Earlier I did a version where she was crying, but looked at it later, didn’t like it, pulled up the skin box and realized that once again, despite religious saving, the program decided to muck it up and not save past a certain point – so I redid it.
Like the Anya Taylor-Joy painting yesterday, this artwork was hours of eyeballing the features and tweaking settings on her face.
I also decided to do a final exam of sorts – e.g. put the original over a screenshot of my work to see if I hit the mark, and I think I got fairly close. What do you think?
Woman with Pearls
Woman with Pearls. #vermeer is my favorite #artist and #girl with a #pearl #earring is my favorite of his #artwork so I decided to update it for 21st century #america – I was hoping to get this #render done by 9, but didn’t count on my rig taking 4 hours to do it, so I missed the golden hour of posting. I’ll have to settle for 6 instead of 8 likes 🙂 #digitalart #digitalartist #new #beauty #portrait
Moving On
Let’s entertain for a moment that someday, I will paint well enough to earn a spot in the Met; even if it’s in the restrooms. When curators look at my body of work, they will see that my realism paintings tend to be utilitarian and dark. They will dissect my state of mind during the creation of the painting and find things with which to create parallels.
Take ‘Moving On’, my latest, as an example. They’ll say there’s a certain eerie loneliness about it. References and connections will be made to social issues and mental illness. They’ll wonder why I’ve painted Vermeer’s ‘Woman Holding a Balance’ as the only thing hanging on the wall, really the only detailed object. The relative emptiness of the rest of the scene stands in stark contrast to the focused area.
If I had to make up a backstory as to the inspiration, I’d say the painting is about ending one journey and beginning another. In this case, the woman is moving out; from a failed relationship, or something else – it’s all in the viewer’s mind.
There is irony in the fact I stopped work on it today, March 11, 2017, which would have been the two year anniversary of my last relationship – A wonderful woman, she dodged a bullet. I wish her the best.
But the painting is not really about any of this. Realism is boring, tedious work. I like rapid, flowing strokes and not contained or restrained lines. I want the brush to dance on the canvas, which is why I got bored and decided to go back to abstract acrylics.
2017. 16×20, acrylic on canvas.
Available for purchase here:
Abstract Art “A Place at the Table”
(Click me, I get bigger) “A Place at the Table” was the result of several synergistic forces. My girlfriend and I had been discussing abstract art after visiting galleries in New York and Washington, DC. She suggested that I give it a try. The problem was that I didn’t have a subject. On an unrelated … Read more
Mixing the works of Vermeer, Friedrich, Cezanne, Munch and the Renaissance
I’ve been busy lately, but criminally have not updated my page. Here is the latest from me. The only one that I’ve named is entitled “The Storm”. I used the techniques of Vermeer, Erbst, Cezanne and my own to create the scene of a woman surprised by some ominous weather. The woman at the window … Read more