[FONT=Verdana]Master Acrylic Painters’ Studies – February 2009 –[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana][FONT=&quot]Adolphe William Bouguereau‘s [/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Cupid and Psyche as Children OR [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]The Little Knitter[/FONT]

With this project, we aim

~To interpret the whole, or part, of a painting by one of the ‘Masters’ and to learn something of the life and times of the chosen painter.

~To increase our technical knowledge of the possibilities (and difficulties) of acrylic paints and learn how to achieve a particular effect from the chosen painting, but interpreted through acrylics

~To share knowledge gained with other members in the forum.

Project Goals:
One master’s work is given below for us to study, and we’ll paint that specific painting, or part of it.
Choosing one painting from any given master will allow us to pick that master again in subsequent months if we so deem, without having too much repetition; or eliminating one artist because we’ve used Him/Her already.

The painting must be in Acrylics… on a support of your choice, in a size of your choice. Obviously, we’re using a different medium from the ‘Master’ (for the most part), and that’s part of the fun, or difficulty.

For the benefit of the community, please post something about Bouguereau that you found during your study of his work. e.g.

~Information about Bouguereau we didn’t know,
or
~information about the painting we’re studying,
or
~how you felt when you saw the original (or the reference!), etc…
and
~How you now feel about the Master’s work, having studied it a little!
This will increase our level of knowledge and appreciation of the studied artist.

The study will run for one month, after which another artist and reference painting will be chosen.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy our study!

February 2009:
Our master this month is one of my favorites. He’s got a way with portraiture, expression, realism, that was unrivaled (well, maybe Rembrandt, he was pretty good! [FONT=Wingdings]J[/FONT]).

I’ve seen one of his pieces at the Art Institute of Chicago and it was a VERY memorable piece. It invoked a feeling (mostly that I’m just not that good! HA!!) that the person he painted was real…was human and had deep emotions. These are things that are very hard to convey in a painting, and even harder to convey in an Acrylic painting.

Thus the challenge goes this month! Have fun painting!

Pick one or the other, or a crop of one, anything you want within these two paintings is good!
One note of interest in my research that I just didn’t know: he was hated during the last portions of his life, which was SO very sad. Here is a quote from a New York Times article (and the link) that I found profoundly terrible!

“his name was always a joke to the avant-garde. Degas and his friends used the term ”bouguerated” to derogate a finicky, overly finished painting surface, and van Gogh put him down as a well-paid maker of ”soft, pretty things.” And by the end of World War I, their vanguard scorn was vindicated by public taste. Bouguereau’s paintings, along with those of such academic contemporaries as Gerome, Cabanel and Alma-Tadema, faded away to the basements of museums.”
Source From the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E4D81F38F935A35752C0A963948260

Cupid and Psyche as Children
High Resolution Image: http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21&hires=1

The Little Knitter
[FONT=&quot]High Resolution Image: http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=1410&hires=1[/FONT]