Day 2, "Woman with a Red Zinnia" by Mary Cassatt

 It's been three weeks since I've been in to copy, because I've been busy going out and painting landscapes while the weather in the DC area has been amazingly gorgeous. But today I got back to the NGA to work on this copy.

I spent today mainly obsessing over the face. I corrected the shape of her jaw and worked on mixing all the flesh tones in her face. I also worked on the green landscape on either side of her head. Interestingly, I ended up using only cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, white, and cadmium yellow, in different combinations, all day. Nothing else. So cool how many different colors you can make with just this limited palette. (This only applies to what I worked on today - I think I used more colors on Day 1.)

Cassatt's

Mine

I'm interested in painting the figure in the landscape, so I'm working as if from life. My person does not yet look like Cassatt's. I don't expect that my painting will be an exact copy. I'll be happy if it looks like Mary Cassatt and I were both working from the same model. After painting outdoors for the past several weeks and dealing with all that changing light, working from a model and landscape that doesn't change feels like such a luxury! Copying a master painting is so educational. I know that what I do here will carry over into my own paintings.

Now I'm off to spend a few weeks in Maine, painting up there. I'll be back to copy in July. See you then!

Day 1 - "Woman with a Red Zinnia" by Mary Cassatt

Yesterday was my copying day, and I'm so happy the National Gallery has resumed the Copyist Program after suspending it for the past three years because of COVID. I especially enjoy taking the VRE train into town, rather than driving or taking Metro. I take the last train of the morning (they only run in rush hour), which is at 8:15. Not too many people are still commuting to work at that late hour, so the train is fairly empty. Today I thought it would be fun to take you along with me on my whole day.

The train is nice and empty at 8:15 am

My ride lasts almost an hour, so I always choose a window seat so I can take photos

Crossing the Potomac

Dramatic skies over the Capitol

My walk to the Gallery is only 1/2 a mile, and the museum doesn't open until 10 am, so I sit outside and wait. This little guy was keeping me company.

No, sorry, I don't have any food for you!

The museum opened, and I got to work. This is as far as I got by lunchtime. I helped myself out by gridding the canvas at home, and I also printed out a photo of the painting and gridded the photo. (I marked the centers horizontally and vertically, and then the quarters horizontally and vertically.) I used the gridded photo to mark where all the major components of the composition fell, to save myself time. I used to stand there and laboriously measure everything with my arm straight out, like I do when drawing from life when I really want to get everything right, but I've gotten kind of lazy with the copies! So I rely on the gridded photo to double-check and it saves a lot of time. When I got the basics drawn in, I put the printout away and just looked at the painting on the wall.

After a very enjoyable 2-hour lunch with a classmate from art school whom I haven't seen since 1979 (!) I worked for another hour and just managed to get all the white canvas covered. The shape of the face needs work, but I think it's off to a decent start.

I chose to copy this painting because figure drawing and painting has always been a special interest of mine. Unfortunately, I don't get the chance to work from a model very often. (I like to surreptitiously sketch people in public!) Copying a figure painting is almost as good as painting from a model, and a model posed outdoors is extra special, since I love to paint outside. I'm happy I chose this painting to copy. I think Mary Cassatt's portraits and figure paintings are so beautiful. I think I will learn a lot by copying this gorgeous painting.

Click the pictures for a larger view