After Giovanna Garzoni - still life

After Giovanna Garzoni - oil on canvas 34 x 50 cm

(Click the painting for a larger image)

This could be called 'Biting off more than I could chew'.  I started the painting a couple of winters ago trying to come to terms with oil paints.  I chose for the exercise to copy a combination of two tempera on vellum pictures by Giovanna Garzoni (b. 1600 Ascoli Piceno, Italy, d. 1670 Rome).  This Italian female painter  was among the first to paint decorative still life and gain fame and fortune as a professional artist.  

 Giovanna Garzoni - 35.5 x 49.5 cm

Firenze, Galleria Palatina

 

 Giovanna Garzoni - 27 x 35 cm

Firenze, Galleria Palatina

And what have I learnt from this exercise?  That Giovanna Garzoni is an inspiration and not to bite off more than I can chew!

If you'd like to see some more of Garzoni's paintings, I found this delightful video on You Tube.

 

Oil Painting's driving me mad.

WIP after Giovanna Garzoni - oil on canvas 50 x 35cm

I didn't have any desire to paint in oil until I was invited to join a local group of Italian artists. I loved the idea of the company and the opportunity to practise my Italian. Everyone was painting in oils. Everyone was painting after the masters. Our teacher doesn't like watercolour. He saw me as a watercolour painter. I started painting contemporary pictures in oil - very slowly because I am totally lacking in confidence with this media. Eventually, in order to benefit from his vast experience, I started trying to copy the masters.

Currently I'm working on a still life after Giovanna Garzoni. She was an amazing woman - Italian artist who lived between 1600-1670, never married, sold her work for big money to wealthy patrons. She made enough to retire at 45 and left a fortune to an art school when she died. Mostly she worked in tempera on vellum.

Giovanna is probably turning in her grave because my picture is copied from two of her paintings. As usual it is going Very Slowly and I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm missing something in oils, I enjoy the feel of them and love the blend ability but it's driving me mad!

So I put aside Garzoni and grabbed a small canvas panel and set about offending Van Gogh....

After Van Gogh - oil on canvas panel 18 x 24 cm

Don't be fooled by the apparent simplicity of this genius! It was impossible to duplicate the wealth of his brushmarks. I worked as quickly as I could - got it done in an afternoon but still had that empty, lost feeling.

There was paint left on my palette so I went mad on a piece of watercolour paper....

I sat back and looked at what I had done and thought - something about this looks familiar - not good but familiar. Is oil painting driving me mad?