We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
"Little Gidding"
T S Eliot

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Monet ... Picasso ...

... and me!

I've finally joined Instagram, as it is all about pictures! If you want to follow me, my user name is kaybee725.

I've been to many exhibitions featuring Monet and he is by far my favourite Impressionist artist. It is his portrayal of light that I love, as well as the colours he uses, so I decided I wanted to have a go at using Monet's colour palette.

I remembered a photo I had taken back in 1979 of the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius in the background and Sorrento below. A typical Monet landscape! So I found the photo, which, fortunately, was in reasonable condition, and used that as inspiration.

I decided to do a test canvas (it's 10 inches by 8 inches) -


For a first attempt - not bad; but quite a few things I would change, so on to a larger canvas!

Went to Tate Modern a couple of weeks ago to see the Picasso 1932 exhibition. Absolutely stunning! I've always been a Picasso fan, but this exhibition just blew me away - the size of the canvases, the colours, and the series of paintings all together - no words can describe how it made me feel!

Here are a few of my favourites -

Girl before a Mirror
Woman Sleeping

I didn't know Picasso also worked in metal, this is welded iron painted white -

Woman in the Garden
Picasso also did collage - who knew!
This is a composition of cloth, wood, plants, string, bug, butterfly and oil paint on canvas.

Composition with Butterfly
I could add so many more ..

" You start a painting and it becomes something altogether different.
It's strange how little the artist's will matters."
Picasso