A Painting A Day

I love Sargent's work, and "A gust of wind" has always been my favorite. I've always thought that this one looked like an unfinished work, but tonight as I tried to paint some kind of semblance of it, I realized there was much more there than I ever imagined. The clouds to the right of her head outline her hat like a shadow. There is a much more detail in the colors of the dress. He makes each brushstroke count. How can he express so much, with such seemingly effortless strokes?

It was very foolish of me to attempt to copy a masterpiece in an hour of painting, but I did it anyway! ;) How else can I learn, unless I study the masters?

Wow! So crazy today - cooking, driving, eating, sharing. It was hard to find the time to fit a painting in. But I am on a roll - I think today is my 18th or 19th day in a row to do a painting (will have to look that up) so I can't break my streak.

I saw the light coming through this bottle and thought it was so lovely. I wondered how on earth I could capture the brightness of it. It took looking at it objectively for a while to realize it was a really really bright orange - or at least that is my best impression. I'm hoping tomorrow to have a little more time to spend on painting.

On a side note, I saw my neice today and gave her the portrait I did of her. Here is a picture of the final portrait framed. :) This was on a 24 x 18 canvas. She seemed really happy with it.

I love the whole concept of this scene - the way the light from the street silhouettes his face, the way his hat and hair obscure his face. I found this photo on someone's blog a long time ago, and always meant to paint it. This one spread off the brush like butta. Love it when that happens!

We are traveling tomorrow, so wanted to get an early start on today's painting - so this is my painting for Wednesday, the 26th.