Saturday 24 January 2015

115. After Paul Cezanne: Detail from The Card Players (1893-96)

(After Paul Cezanne)
Oil on Pebeo Linen Canvas Board, 4" x 4"

Original Painting by Paul Cezanne

(Work-in-progress images are beneath the text.)

Hi Everyone, we're on the last stretch of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge now! Thank you Leslie and congratulations to you all - everyone has done really well and it's been great to meet some new friends along the way.

This is the painting that Qatar bought in 2012 for $250m!!! (That was £160m in our money, at the time anyway.)

This time, I thought I'd just pick out a detail from the original and chose the hands as it is such good practice. Oh my! This painting was so hard. At first, although happy with the fingers, I could not get the flat shape of the back of the hand right - it just looked swollen. I took heart from something Tom Coates said at a workshop I attended; he said portraiture is about painting mistakes and then correcting them until you get it right. So I persevered.

I started fiddling then remembered hearing that Paul Cezanne had reduced his work to painting the cylinder, the cone and the sphere. So I removed some of the paint and focused instead on the shape of the knuckles (I noticed diamonds), the base of the wrist and the middle of the hand (looks almost like a Ferrari symbol). Once I got the knuckles right, the 'swollen' look disappeared - merci, Monsieur Cezanne!

Have a successful, productive and happy weekend, everyone!


 Smoother

Household lighting!

Before eliminating some of the 'black' and tidying up the sleeve (in daylight)
(Schminke Atrament Black and MH Magenta)

5 comments:

  1. I enjoyed everything about this post. Thanks for taking the time.
    Loce the fact you mentioned how Cezanne reduced his work down to basic shapes.
    I am envious you took from Tom Coates. I have a book with some of his work in it and admire him so much.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting, Julie, and for your kind comments. Yes, Tom was at the Mall Galleries for a day - he is a true gentleman and an incredibly talented artist.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting, Rolina. I love your blog - such beautiful colours!

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  3. The hands look great! And I like your idea - taking some part of a certain painting and repainting it. I am curious what you will paint next.

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