The Riders, Days 4 and 5

 My apologies, I neglected to post last week! Last Wednesday, March 22nd, was day 4 on this copy. This is how it looked at the end of the day last week. I didn't take a close-up photo of it, not sure why. I remember I left early, so I was probably feeling tired that day.

Yesterday was a much more productive day. I arrived before the doors opened (thank you, VRE, whose last train is at 8:15 and gets me to town almost an hour early.) The museum was extremely crowded with school groups and I attracted lots of people who stood and watched me paint. I managed to get a lot done, even with frequent breaks to chat with visitors, who are always so kind and boost my ego and spirits. The guard was great and literally had my back, reminding visitors to stay back and give me room.

I worked on the horses and the land around them. I glazed over the too-bright grass and worked on where the horses' hooves meet the ground, so they wouldn't look like they're floating. I think I'm almost finished with this copy. Not that it's a perfect copy - I see many mistakes, including the space between the horses. But as I've said before, I'm copying, not "making a copy". It's not possible to get everything correct (at least for me) and still keep the feeling of loose and scribbly that I love about this painting.

This is how it looked when I went to lunch:

After lunch, I continued glazing and putting the darker marks in the foreground. Here is how the painting looked at the end of the day. I thought of turning in my permit, but I think I'll work on it for one more day, making more corrections, before I say I'm finished with it.

I'm already trying to figure out what my next copy will be...

The Riders, Day 3

I got off to a late start this morning, and I took a different Metro line, to see what it was like. I think it took about twice as long as the one I usually take! But the station was a little closer to home and it was easier to park. Still, I'd rather have a shorter ride on the train, so I won't be doing that again. 

So it was late morning by the time I got started on my copy. The museum was really crowded! So many people all around me that I couldn't even step back to get a good look at my painting. I was surprised, since the last two Wednesdays it was pretty quiet. Somebody said they thought it was Spring Break, which would explain the crowds.

I concentrated on the horses and riders today. Those horses' legs are really confusing! Degas let the bodies of the horses run together, and sometimes the legs that I thought belonged to one horse actually belonged to another. Also, one of the horses (the very left forefront one) is very unclear as to which direction its body is facing. Sometimes I think it's one way, and sometimes another. I painted for two hours, had lunch for an hour, and then painted for another hour and a half. Suddenly I had just had enough. I was so desperate to get away from the crowds that I forgot to take a photo of my painting on the easel, so I photographed it in the Copyists' locker room, which has garish fluorescent lighting. I also photographed it out in the hallway, which has very little lighting. I'll post both here.

click the pictures for a larger view

I'm looking forward to returning fresh next Wednesday, hopefully earlier than today. 

The Riders, Day 2

Today I started by painting in the sky. I had toned the whole canvas yellow, which turned out to be the wrong color. It's actually got a more orange underpainting. And I shouldn't have included the sky, but that's OK, because today I painted the sky in and it covered the underpainting. Then I started working my way down the landscape. The museum was pretty full today, and a lot of people wanted to talk to me, asking me things like, can anybody just come in here and paint? So I got to educate a lot of people about how to become a Copyist. And everyone was so complimentary, it makes up for the fact that you get interrupted a lot.

I had gotten an early start, took the Metro, and arrived at the museum just as the doors were opening. My initial block-in last week was pretty accurate (how did that happen?) but I found plenty of corrections to make when I got down to the jockeys. My canvas is slightly less wide in proportion to its height than the original, so things don't really work out the same way, especially in that clump of horses, riders and negative space, but I guess it's good enough. I love how the horses blend in with each other - Degas didn't bother defining everything. It's a very gestural painting, it really has a feeling of motion. I stopped as soon as I started feeling tired, which was about 3:00. I think this copy might be done in another couple of weeks. 

Click the images for a larger view.

We're back!

The National Gallery has resumed the Copyist program, after suspending it for three years because of COVID. I had actually been on a hiatus since June 2019, because I was still working full time and just didn't have the energy to spend one of my two days off per week going in to DC and copying all day. Then the pandemic hit and they suspended copying. I retired in July 2021 and have been eagerly waiting for the Copyist program to resume, and now it has.

I am copying Edgar Degas' "The Riders". Here is the original:

I've been looking at this painting for years, wondering if I should try copying it. I stretched my canvas a little smaller than the original, as is required, and I stained it yellow. I wish I had used more of an orange color for the base layer, because that's what it looks like Degas did. I worked for about two hours today, blocking it in, trying to keep it loose and scribbly, like the painting. This is as far as I got today. I decided to stop before I was tempted to go too far, since the painting is so sketchy and thin.

It felt great to be back copying at the Naitonal Gallery. I enjoyed chatting with visitors who were curious about the Copyist program. One nice lady told me I should stop and hang it on the wall! But I'm going to keep going. To be continued next Wednesday!