Woman

with a Pearl Earring

I finished my 2 week art course at lunch time today and I can tell you it was a terrific experience.

Our tutor gave her 4 students (a woman from Spain: man from London and man from Lyon and me) a brief overview of using oil paints; watercolours; acrylics: pencil and charcoal drawing.

She gave us a lecture on the History of Art with particular reference to the Renaissance and the Impressionists.

Last Tuesday 21st she gave us homework to research an artist from our respective countries and then to present to the class. This was wonderful - a very enjoyable part of the course

We heard about Isabella Quintanilla from Spain

David Hockney from the UK

Claude Monet from France

Pauline Bewick from Ireland (ok she was born in England but lives her life in Ireland - google her - she’s great)

We did life drawing in charcoal and each of us had to model for the class. Arghhh my nose kept getting itchy

We painted still life of a vase of tulips and had such a relaxing time and had coffee and the french man bought almond cake for us all.

And our final project was for fun and to make us think in different ways

We each had to pick a secret card with the name of a famous painting on it and we had to recreate the painting with a different angle.

I picked the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Well here she is 40 years later. Older, wiser, maybe a bit regretful, maybe a bit sad, or maybe with a wry smile. What do you think? We had to include the original painting in some way in the photograph. (We had to submit the work in a photo to the tutor by email and then she critiqued them at our last class today).

The man from London did an amazing painting based on Andrew Wyeth’s Christina. This is girl lying on the grass at the bottom of a hill reaching out to the house at the top of the hill. He presented it as a marathon runner who falls on the ground in sight of the finish line and reaches out for it. It was amazing. His race number was the original painting. Brilliant it was

I am sad it’s over. The tutor was relaxed and laid back and all her 4 students hit it off immediately.

I love painting