Periodically I paint small gouache copies of great artists’s work. The copies are made using a limited palette — red, yellow, blue, and white — to create approximations from print reproductions of the originals. Aside from learning about subject and relationship, design and facture, the act of copying reveals my dread or thrill as each aspect of depiction is encountered, when care is sustained or the towel thrown in. Temperaments and history come to life, albeit on a miniature scale.
ABOVE: Matisse, Carmelina, 1903 — 6.75 x 4.75 in (17 x 12 cm), 08/31/09
Diebenkorn, Untitled (Still life with Iris), 1956 — 5.5 x 5 in (14 x 13 cm), 07/08/09
Luis Eugenio Melendez, Still Life with Figs, 1716-1780/undated — 4.75 x 6 in (12 x 15 cm), 01/18/10