Vermeer Mural by Gardega

I was commissioned to paint this in a jewelry store in Palm Beach Florida recently. (The box in the lower middle is a window into the other room.) It is a copy of Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter. I had to take some compositional liberties. Oil on wall.

Old Master Copies: Battle Of Anghiari by Gardega

Here is my third and final Battle of Anghiari commission. This painting exists only in a sketch by Rubens after Leonardo's original. I really enjoyed learning as much as I could about this piece but I think a third time is a charm. I can probably draw 85% of it by memory now. I am going to give that a go.

Trois Cheveux!

I went to The Met yesterday and saw some new drawings/ prints they had put up, Luckily their print and drawing section gets changed up regularly so its exciting to see new works. I thought I would use three different prints and drawings based on horses to compare style and give my two shillings on them. 

One of my favorite artists is GERICAULT. (He was Delacroix's teacher) I love this drawing/ watercolor there is so much life to it! Look at that sky! There seems to be a coming storm (is that a volcano in background??) it leads to a lot of mystery and questions..The horse seems to be nervous as they are often are pre-storm. The guy sitting is awesome as is his pose, just a great piece! VIVA GERICAULT.

Lautrec! I am not sure what has happened to art but you dont find much it around anymore, this strikes me even more when you look at work buy the genius of Lautrec. Look at the life in that horse and rider! Totally stylized, totally great! If you notice the print is composed as an perfect  angle from top left to bottom right. Just brilliant! The sharp diagonal is broken by the curve of the arena. I had to fight not to steal off the wall and run out like james bond. Not bad for a dwarf who drank absinthe out of his cane.

  
Sargent... When I was in art school everyone loved Sargent (because they had no taste) A lifeless, well rendered photograph of a horse. Very mechanical..go back to painting buttery aristocrats, Sargent--he did paint some nice watercolors, though--and he had skill. Skill without taste is like bread without jam.


There you have it, a complete explanation of art and drawing using only Trois Cheveux...

did I butcher the french?

ANGEL PRINTS

Prints are now available of my angel. 12"  x 18" Limited to 100 pieces signed and numbered. For info fill out form to right.

ART WITH ALEX : Monday Morning Art Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOrE7ltR80E&feature=youtu.be

Here is the speed painting of the angel I promised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED__aqEGtNQ


I will go further into the painting process on SATURDAYS. Each Saturday there will be a teaching session on here. He who teaches, learns.

How To Paint Like DaVinci

Art school will not teach you to paint like Davinci because art school knows nothing about him or the Renaissance. Art school will teach you to paint like Sargent at best--I.e. badly. If you want to learn about Leonardo you must spend 20 years studying him in museums and books. Luckily I have done some homework for you over the past 20 years so I can help you copy a DaVinci that would make your neighbors jealous. Remember, there is no such thing as cheating in art so I will help you cheat your way through this painting.

The first thing you need is to print the picture above out in Kinkos or Staples. It is 10.5 inches wide so print 11 x 17 on color printer. (You can put on a thumb drive and print from a thumb drive right to a copier in either kinkos or staples)

After you have printed out you want to bring it home and trace it very carefully! If you dont have a lightbox you can use the glass on your front door. I have used this trick on many a mural job onsite. TRACE CAREFULLY! DONT BE LAZY...my drawing is flipped here--dont worry about that, Ill explain later.

Now go back to kinkos and have them make a black and white copy of your tracing! A kinkos person can flip your drawing left or right horizontally in the copier (called a mirror) very handy!

Now, for 5 dollars the kinkos person make a blow up of the image up to 24 inch wide. in this case that is exactly 230%

Now the blow up is 24 by roughly 34 inches the canvas is 24 x 36 so I added two more inches to image when i started painting. Ill explain later. Now put your tracing paper on top of this (use a roll of tracing paper that is 2 foot wide) carefully trace whole image again on a window or door. be careful and don't be lazy. I will post more each day on this project and also include time lapse video. Go make your copies and dont slack.