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Just finished a late night self portrait and it turned out well. Those nights when I can't sleep, I get a lot of drawing, writing and reading done.
I was working on another flower painting tonight and had an opportunity to paint a small self portrait. I could see myself reflected in a back window behind the still life so I used 3 brush strokes to capture the planes of my face; I think it came out to be a good likeness.
I've also been thinking recently about representational painting and how to really capture a feeling of atmosphere in a painting. It really goes beyond representation - Sorolla was a master of this. It's almost like you have to paint the feeling as well as the reality. And I've found that I can't be too careful about it. There's a certain rhythm to it and if I go too slowly or too quickly then it doesn't work. Every time I try to put it into words it just falls apart so I guess I can't even put it into words. Anyway, I'm feeling very energized and will be painting up a storm. I just got a new rare book that I'm very happy to add to my library. This is a 1934 1st edition of Painting A Portrait by Philip de László (1869 - 1937). It's part of a series of books called "How to Do It", which included 6 books in total in various media, such as watercolor, etching, sculpture, etc. For anyone who doesn't know, de László was a brilliant portrait painter who took over a lot of commissions once Sargent announced "No more paughtraits" in 1907.
I first read this as a PDF file that was generously sent to me by Mr. Juan Jr. Ramirez. That PDF was different from this edition and had some different photos and information. The photos in this book are nicely pasted in and almost have an old, glossy photographic finish to them. It's really a beautiful book. As a painter, art historian and collector of rare books, I'm proud to add this to my collection. |
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