Master artists -- then and now, here and there

The bright colours!  The repeated geometric elements -- like cuddly mojis!  The all-over design!  It's big news here this month with the Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibit of famed Japanese artist Takashi Murikami.  But no, the image above -- although strikingly suggestive -- is not an original Murikami.  It's the collected scrapings and splotches from my palette.

So it's not surprising that I'm far less interested (very far; very very far) in this current VAG exhibit than in my on-line art class, as we wend our way through Western art history.  The overall plan is to focus in one way or another on a different artist a week for every week of 2018.  It's an ambitious pace, but not as frantic as what you'll see here.  Do click on the link -- it's an amusing must-see.

"Wending our way" is short form for a rather meandering chronology and a pleasantly unstructured curriculum in which everyone does what they please with each week's lesson, using -- or not using -- the week's demonstrated medium.  Here's what I did in the four weeks of February.

First week, the subject was Botticelli and his familiar "Birth of Venus" and the suggested medium, encaustic -- a wax process in which I have no interest.  I decided to opt for "A Neighbourhood Botticelli" -- a painting of Sara, the local pub's lovely young waitress who cheerily dispenses coffee to our small group of retirees.  I made a quick memory drawing:

-- and then started to paint, continually correcting my tones and placements.  OMG!  Then the week was ending, and I was lost in the dark world of The Night of the Living Dead.

What the heck.  I submitted it as my homework -- there are no rules, no deadlines,  no grades, but I'm pressing myself to stick with the weekly schedule.  After posting, I continued to fiddle some more, achieving this slightly more respectable version:

At last sighting (this morning), "Zombie Sara" has been completely obliterated with a layer of grey paint, awaiting a future rebirth -- like Venus maybe.

On to Week 2, with Albrecht Dürer as the subject artist and charcoal as the suggested medium.  I'd found a fabulous painting of  Dürer's austere father as my model:

 I worked quite conservatively with charcoal pencil:--

...and then let loose with a little more drama, achieving a very un-Dürerish result. 

I was still then posting to the class Facebook site and put up my final version with the message:  "Drawing after 'Portrait of the Artist's Father'.   But which artist?!?   Looks more like Caravaggio."

Moving right along to Week 3 on 18^th century German artist Anna Dorothea Therbusch.  No, I'd never heard of her either, and she's worth reading about.  The lesson touched on her self-portraits, and we were invited to do our own -- about which I had mixed feelings.

To acquaint myself with some of  Therbusch's challenging head and neck angles, I did a quick sketch of her "Dionysus."

And then a more carefully drawn self-portrait -- which told me I needed either a haircut or leaves in my hair, à la Dionysus:

For my final careful drawing, I worked from this gorgeous Therbusch painting, "Magdalena."

I'm still intrigued by the painting -- Is she counting on her fingers?  Who's inviting her to look in the mirror? -- and I'm pretty satisfied with my four days' meticulous work.

Then to the last week of the month and the 19^th century painter John William Waterhouse.  You might not know his name but you'll surely recognize some of his paintings, one of which -- "The Lady of Shalott" -- was the lesson piece.  My contribution to the class was this link to Loreena McKennitt's lovely song based on Tennyson's poem, and then I jolly well went off on my own tangent.

Remember my fascination with the carved female faces atop the viola da gamba instruments I heard last October?  Some of the same musicians, members of The Vancouver Viols consortium, gave a concert two weeks ago, and I showed up like a groupie, sketchbook in hand.

-- and then I put down my pen to be enchanted by the music.  The instruments were beautiful, but this time only one had a carved head at its top.  And it was magical!!  Right in the middle of Chinese New Year:-- a Chinese-Finnish creation with a dragon's head! 

I couldn't leave that dragon alone and spent my class time in the days that followed using the photo to paint "Playing with the Dragon" (copyright 2018)

I don't even care that only six people "liked" it on the class site.  I stand strong in my resolution to do my own thing in whatever way I please.  Meow.