Friday, September 21, 2007

After John Singer Sargent


After JSS Campo dei Gesuiti (Venice) watercolour 26 x 36cm
Original painting 1902-1904 is 35 x 50cm (Private collection)

This is my second attempt to copy a John Singer Sargent watercolour, the first some time ago, I think was more successful.

The Sargent and Venice exhibition I saw earlier this month was inspiring. It would have been wonderful to paint in the gallery which I had pretty much to myself, being on the tale-end of the exhibition. Unfortunately not enough time.

It isn't until I try to copy Sargent that I realise how deceptive is the simplicity of his watercolours. This palette is quite simple but the values are very hard to get. I will attempt this picture again, taking a little more care with my vertical lines and proportions. Next I will try this palette with one of my Venice photographs.

6 comments:

Joan said...

You did a nice job on this. The two far buildings have wonderful color. This palette would work well with Venice photos. I'd like to see that.

Anita Davies said...

Beautiful Robyn!
BTW, I have mentioned you in my blog post titled 'Mixer Trixer' ;)

Lindsay said...

This is really beautiful. I think the values look wonderful.

Anita said...

Great palette - the purple shadows against the sienna and ochre is wonderful. So Italian!

Making A Mark said...

Deceptively simple is a very good way of summing up what he produced. My strong impression with JSS is that he was really really good at getting both the right colour and the right value in enough quantity on to the right sized brush!

Now that's not a lot to think about is it? ;)

It could be the reason I don't do watercolour anymore though! :D

Whatever shortcomings you see in this I can certainly still see progress - some of your colours are very definitely echoing JSS.

Did you get the book of the exhibition?

Robyn Sinclair said...

Thanks Joan, Anita, Lindsay & Anita for your encouragement.

Katherine - I know I have to start using bigger brushes! Well spotted! Yes, I did buy the book of the exhibition and was so disappointed when I eventually had time to open it to discover all the wonderful essays had been translated into ITALIAN! I'm never going to be able to read it in any depth. I do have the images though and I did get to see the exhibition, when it had been advertised to close on July 22. How's that for luck!

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