Photo Friday

This week’s Photo Friday is a painting by Marcus Stone called “In Love”, painted in 1888.

Marcus Stone, 1888, “In Love” Photo from Plum Leaves’ Flickr stream

I love the soft colors of the painting and the very earnest look the young gentleman is giving his love, sitting oh, so far away. I wonder though, what’s behind him? Is it a pillow or book of illustrations? What do you think?

Photo Friday

 “Woman Seen from the Back” ca 1862, Paris, France
 This is a really wonderful backview of a woman’s hair, dress and necklace. I find it to be really educational since this is a rare seen view of a real woman from the period.

Salted Paper Print from Glass Negative, ca 1862, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here’s the description from the Met:

“A wealthy amateur photographer and a familiar figure at the French imperial court, the viscount Onésipe-Gonsalve Aguado de Las Marismas joined the Société Française de Photographie in 1858. With his better-known brother Olympe, a founding member of the society, Onésipe Aguado was among the early makers of photographic enlargements. The two brothers also collaborated on tableaux vivants that depict with wit and playfulness the fads and amusements of elegant society.
At once a portrait, a fashion plate, and a jest, this fascinating image expresses Aguado’s whimsical mood, and is probably an extension of his work on foreshortening. It is strangely devoid of depth, as if the sitter were a two-dimensional cutout, a mere silhouette. The figure brings to mind the compositions of such painters as Caspar David Friedrich and René Magritte, both of whom made haunting use of figures seen from the back.”

Finished painting!

Yay! It’s finally done! Here are a few progress pictures before it was at this point

🙂

Detail of Shawl

Detail of Face

Original with my version!

 Tada! Now I am able to choose another painting to copy. Anyone have any ideas?

Photo Friday

© Bridgeman Art Library / Rafael Valls Gallery, London, UK Painted by J. Mulnier

Today’s Photo Friday is going of an 18th century woman with a ridiculously huge hat…. but I want it.

Have a great weekend!

Some fun with painting.

I’m taking an art class at the theatre department and we’re working with gouache. I’d never worked with the medium before, so it’s been a new experience. What’s nice about gouache is that it has a higher pigment than watercolor, but you can layer it like watercolor.

We’re recreating a painting for our project, the theme being “Orientalism.” I chose one by Jose Gallegos y Arnosa, a painting called “The Yellow Shawl” painted in 1881.

photo from www.orientalist-art.org.

 Here are some progress pics thus far.
 ** the flash makes everything washed out, the pigments are far brighter in person**