Digitally re:Masterpieces - TheThree (Dis) Graces

It's been a while since I've done a Digitally Re:Masterpieces post.  But I mentioned last time that I knew what I wanted to do, and it was this:

Antonio Canova's The Three Graces (1817) although in fact this isn't quite the right one, because Canova actually sculpted two versions.  This one, which is in the Hermitage in St Petersburg (one of the most amazing places in the world - you have to go there a  minimum of twice: once to gaze in amazement at the building itself and the second time to notice that it happens to have one of the world's greatest collections of art hanging on the walls and dotted around the rooms), and another, commissioned by the Duke of Bedford because he liked the first so much, which now spends half its time in the National Galleries of Scotland, and half in the V&A.

So, living quite close to Edinburgh, we've been lucky enough to see that version quite a few times.  And when I visited it recently with a friend, I was struck again by how beautiful they are, these three sisters.

A bit like this:  

The Three Disgraces (2010)

When I started doing these Digitally re:Masterpieces posts I meant to do one every month and I hoped that other people would join in... I'm still hoping for the latter, although I've failed on the former.  Do join in, and link to your post here:



Oh, and as a side thought, one of the reasons I have not posted this before is because I worried it was inappropriate to put this picture out on the net. Is it? What do people think?

Three Graces picture taken by Mark Thorpe and found on Wikimedia Commons.  Thank you.

Digitally re:Masterpieces - The Black Brook

When I was a moody and overly-romantic teenager (as against being a moody and overly-romantic 33-year-old, clearly) I loved this picture:

It's called the Black Brook and was painted in 1908 by the American artist John Singer Sargent. It's in the Tate Collection, although I can't actually work out if it's on display (and if so, in which Gallery).

Anyway, as I say, I loved it. I loved the melancholy feeling, and the fluidity of the water, and the placid beauty of the model.  I sort of hoped that when I grew up, I'd look like that, and probably that I'd float about in drifty clothes like that too.

Now I am grown up, I've realised the impracticality of wafty linen, and I've accepted that my face is my face, and very rarely looks placid.  I'm not really so given to imagining myself sitting dreamily by a rushy brook these days either, but I still love this painting.

I think now, it's more about the water, and the way the light sparkles, and the cold and freshness that you can feel, even through the oil and canvas, so, in trying to recreate it,  I started with this:

which I'm actually very pleased with, but it's not quite right.  Singer Sargent put a girl in his (his niece, Rose Marie Ormond) for a reason.  So I got myself a model.  Disappointingly that didn't entirely  make things easier. For a start Rose was probably a bit more helpful and accommodating, and she certainly wouldn't have refused to stop sucking her fingers. 

Sadly too, the way the path runs along the river doesn't allow for the same composition, and I wasn't prepared to risk drowning (I know, shameful lack of commitment).   I'm also not sure that the Tweed, one of Scotland's premier salmon fishing rivers, really qualifies as a brook, but I had to work with what I had, so here's my version:

The Black River (2010)

Linky below... go on, join in!  Do this painting, do another one, do a different art form altogether (Tracey Emin's Bed anyone?)...



Oh, and I do know what I want to do next month (clue, it's a sculpture) but again, it's a bit model-dependent, so I don't want to push my luck by telling you want it is, come back at the beginning of October to see if I've succeeded.

And if none of this is making any sense, click here to see what on earth it is that I'm trying to achieve...

Digitally re:Masterpieces - Sunflowers

I said this one was going to be tricky, and I was right. 

It's the first of the month, so it's time for a brilliant (ahem) reworking in digital photography of a masterpiece, and this month I've set myself Sunflowers.  And to be honest, I'm not very happy with it.

Vincent Van Gogh came up with this:

Can't be that difficult to recreate that, can it? It's just a bunch of flowers.  All I've got to do is stick them in a jug and away we go...

Or not.  Because to recreate it, you've got to actually look at it.  And when you look at it you realise it's much more than a bunch of flowers in a jug.  What's happening to those flowers?  What's going on with those ones that look like those things you put in your hair to make an airhostessy sort of bun?  How do you get a sunflower to do that?

I think I'd always assumed they were seed heads.  And maybe they are.  But whatever it is they are, you don't get to it by leaving a bunch of Lidl sunflowers without water for a week.  All you end up with then is dead sunflowers.

So I'm afraid I've ended up, appropriately enough, with Plan B.

Sunflower (Potted) (2010)

Here's hoping the rest of you come up with something better.... Linky below!

Oh, and next month, I'm leaving the National Gallery, and heading west to the Tate, and doing this, because it makes me feel all teenagery and romantic...


Oh, and that picture's from wikipedia, but the original (or one of them, because there are lots) is in the National Gallery.

Digitally re:Masterpieces - An Invitation

You are cordially invited

to an exclusive viewing of 

Digitally Re:Masterpieces by, well, erm....

You!

A week ago, inspired by Tara, and urged on by Iota, I suggested that anyone who wanted to should join me in recreating some fantastic works of art with our cameras, our imaginations, and our ordinary twenty-first century stuff.  You can click here to see the post and the reactions.

To my enormous delight, you seem to like the idea, so as approved by Trish (who's created a  fantastic Van Gogh reimagining) I've added a linky onto the original post, so that you can add your amazing pictures there.   The linky is open until (I think) the 23rd of July (it's round about then anyway) so you've got lots of time, and if you miss it, there'll be another one next month!

Please do join in!  I'm going to be doing this every month on the first of the month and I'd love to get lots of people taking part.  My original thinking was that we'd all do the same one, because I think it'd be fab to see how we all interpret the same thing, so if you're stuck for an idea, I'd love to see your Sunflowers on the first of August.  That said, though, Trish's bed is awesome, and there are lots of other fantastic ideas floating around, so if you've got a better one, do that instead, or if you prefer send it to me and we can all do it in due course.

Deer Baby also raised a copyright issue about using images of the original works.  I'm risking it for the moment, but I have asked a former colleague who is a media and copyright lawyer, and will let you know if there's a problem. 

Digitally re:masterpieces

Ok, let's go back a while.

A long, long time ago (about four months), the brilliant Tara came up with the Gallery.  Every week she racks her brains for an idea, a prompt, a theme and she posts it on her blog, and we, the punters, go off and take pictures, or dig out pictures, and post them on our blogs.

Now, precisely one month ago,  she said Still Life.  And I posted this:

which was based on this:

And lots of people seemed to love it.  So much so that the wonderful Iota Manhattan suggested I do more of them, a little series of reworked masterpieces.   And I thought about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

You see, once upon a time, I used to work with amazing paintings. Not often, but occasionally.  And occasionally I was instrumental in making sure that the same amazing paintings got to stay in this country.  And I would go, every now and then, to our national collections and look at these paintings, and think "I made two phone calls in a year's worth of work that my boss did that means I can stand and look at that painting now, for free".  And I don't do that any more. And a part of me misses it.

So, here's the idea.  Once a month I'm going to set myself a painting, or a sculpture, and I'm going to remaster it for the modern age. And then I'm going to post it on here, and see what you think.  The only limitation?  The original must be in the UK, in a public collection. So if we want to go and see what it really looks like, undigitised, and un-remastered, we can.  I'm hoping that some of you might suggest some (leave me a comment, you know I love that!), but failing that I'll pick one myself.

I thought I'd start with another still life, just because the props are easier to find (we'll move on to portraits of Popes later, shall we?), so ladies and gentlemen, I give you, hot from the National Gallery:

Still Life with Lemons and Oranges (1760s), by Luis Melendez

 

re-imagined, for 2010, as Still Life, without Melon by me.

And as a sneak preview, I'm thinking Sunflowers for next month, because it'll be August, and the girls have just planted some, and because I think it'll be trickier than it sounds...Oh, and if anyone wants to join in, just say, and I'll try and work out how to stick a McLinky on...

Next day.... due to popular request, Linky below.  Join in!