Friday, July 01, 2016

Inspiration from the past

I have been busy with a renovation project at home and have been neglecting both my painting and blogging. But it is time I got back to both!

I decided to take inspiration from some of the artists of the past, not by copying either their techniques or compositions, but creating a contemporary equivalent of their subject matter.

This one is inspired by Édouard Manet's "Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the grass)". There is still a lot of work to be done to it, but I am happy with the composition. The original "Déjeuner" is usually taken as showing two young, fashionable, parisian males with their mistresses. I wanted mine to show an intimate family group. The images are not of anyone in particular, I drew on a variety of sources for help with the detail.