ArtPact #24

(Originally published on July 03, 2007).

Yestersay, I finally got over my block with FergieJ's collage, which I started 10 days ago and have been gracefully avoiding the subject ever since. I did continue it, but only to a certain extent, and it just sat there in my studio, giving me this I-am-not-finished provoking look.

Last Saturday, we had WackieM's last class (no need to sob - there's a good chance she'll be giving another 6-session monthly class, only this time it won't require going all the way north, but rather involve going south to QuiltieD's spacious house, which is only a 30-minute drive away).

WackieM gave us our summer assignment: each of us should look at the works of her favorite painters (yup, the sad fact is that we're only women in this class), and paint portraits as if they painted it, trying to imitate their style. It's a bit like all those artists you see at museums, standing with an easel and a beret and copying a painting. 'What's the point!?', you wonder?. Well, it's considered to be an incredible art lesson, as it forces you to really study how the painter approached and solved the problems in that painting. WackieM is taking it one step further: instead of copying a painting (which, to me, is kinda boring, plus I will look silly in a beret), we are to imitate the style with our own image. We started it in class, trying to do a portrait in the style of David Levine, a fantastic figurative painter. It wasn't the ideal setting for such a task, as we only had one book to look at, and his work was very new to us, so at some point, I just decided to use the earth-tone colors that are typical to him, and see what I can come up with.

It was fun to paint again, after 2 months of collaging, and I kinda like the sketchy result, (even if it does have a somewhat Neanderthal look to it...). I am looking forward to this summer assignment - should be tons of fun to do!!

And, last evening, I finally worked seriously on finishing the collage, and photographed it this morning.
Again, the color gets quite screwed up in the photo. Apparently, in a collage the effect is even worse than in a painting.

And yet: Voila!

"At The Drawing Table", Collage on matboard, 14"x21"

Not sure it's 100% done, but it's close to the point of looking complete. It's a real fun one to work on.