Diary of a Painting

April has been my model for over a year.  She was already my pottery student, working off her lessons by helping around the studio.  One day, while I was observing her natural grace and comfortable physicality, I asked her if she would consider modeling for me.  She was surprised and flattered and very shortly after that we did our first photo session. I was right; she is a natural.  It's not just her basic good looks.  She is beautiful.  But I love her coloring and the way she moves in space and her buoyancy contrasting with her serenity. AND she can find a great pose.  I only give her the merest suggestions and then let her do her own thing.  And then she can get back in her pose and hold it for as long as I need her to.

The Penitent Madgalena ~ George de la Tour

Last year April went with her language club to Spain. While in Madrid she and a few friends toured the Prado Museum.  She brought me a post card of The Penitent Magdalene by George de la Tour which she had studied in her art history class. It's a fabulous painting about redemption and forgiveness, laden with symbols, dark and emotional.

It's now a year later. April is getting ready to go Truman State University to study Art History.  As a final project with her, I asked her if she would collaborate with me to create an homage to this wonderful painting. Of course, instead of being a penitent magdalene, she is an expectant young women, leaving the security of childhood and entering the uncertainty of the future and contemplating her choice of studies.  She agreed to meet the following Wednesday, bringing costumes and objects that are meaningful to her.

We spent most of the morning composing.  She tried on half a dozen different outfits. We felt really clever using a drawing horse instead of a table and chair because it what was conveniently on hand and also more evocative of the art field.  We set up our lighting and arranged her Art History book overshadowing her childhood readers.  And to complete the homage we gave her a candle holder and lit the candle.  I saw an image in the digital camera that was very close to our concept.  I adjusted the lighting and stopped down the lens a few times to approximate the candle light.  Got it.

day two

 Day one was a frustration of trying to lay out a grid and making it fit my canvas.  I'm lousy at math and this just didn't work out so I wiped it off.  Bah!  Day two I merely divided it into thirds across the width and fourths along the height.  It's a huge canvas: 36" X 60"  That's an amazing amount of canvas to cover.  And my easel doesn't crank all the way to the floor so I have two step stool to stand on so I can get eye level with the painting.  I really need to NAIL the perspective right off the bat.  Obviously I haven't quite gotten it yet.  And the legs aren't long enough.  I saw that as soon as I took this snap with my phone. But, it was a beginning.