Saturday 17 March 2012

Thursday 15 March 2012

March Girl


 Yesterday I started this new work. I was going to take pictures of it this morning, at a much earlier stage, to document my progress as usual but found the digital camera had gone flat and when I plugged the battery into the wall socket to recharge it blew up quite spectacularly! So I went on painting for a few more hours while the camera charged with a replacement usb cord.

At the moment the work doesn't have a "name" I'm just referring to it as "March girl"....any ideas? I'd be happy to consider any suggestions from my blog readers if you want to use the comment facility! I often find coming up with a name more challenging than creating the whole work!

I'm showing this other picture of how Ive developed the face from its original source material. In this case I've used a photograph from the very famous American fashion photographer Edward Steichen. The original photo (of a full figure, I have cropped the face only for my purposes) was taken in 1924 and is of the Princess Youssopoff, whom Steichen regarded as a style muse. As I don't do much life drawing or seldom take photos of models from real life I often use images such as these which are out of copyright. As you can see I have "interpreted" the image quite differently from the original source.

The arm has been completed with a section of embellished textile. In the next few days I'll finish the dress, probably add some fibre and stitching to the hair and are contemplating adding a plant like decorative form down the right side of the canvas...but then....the work is quite lovely with its present space and simplicity...I wonder if I could rise to the challenge of not altering and adding much more to it...ha!

The face isn't quite finished, I'll do a little more detailing on it tomorrow.