90% Perspiration



D'aprés John Singer Sargent
By Marilyn Diggs

   Albert Einstein said, "Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration." He might have just as well be talking about painting. 

Do you think an artist just picks up a paint brush, dabbles it into paint and voilá, a great painting? True artists pay their dues by dedicating time to visiting museums, pouring over art books and learning from others who have come before them. Dedicated artists take valuable lessons  from the Great Masters, past and present. They practise, practise, practise. Afterwards, they find their own direction and personal  interpretation.

When you see an artist at her easel inside the Louvre Museum copying Titian, Velázquez, Van Dyke etc. that isn´t just for fun. That person is studying composition, color, brush strokes - learning by copying. Van Gogh, for example, admired  and copied Courbet as you will see in many of the Dutchman's canvases. The  figures in Edouard Manet´s  Luncheon on the Grass  were borrowed from a print by Marcantonio Raimondi - The Judgement of Paris (c. 1520), who copied Raphael.

It is not a sin to copy a painting, BUT the credit must be given to the original artist. The  artist  signs her name to the painting, but must put After or in French - D'aprés - plus the name of the original artist, as you see here in my painting of Lady Agnew.  I will never regret the two years of copying Master portrait artists, to improve my  figures.

All paintings posted on my blog are for sale. If you are interested in knowing details, write me at mdiggs@mdiggs.com.  Also visit: www.mdiggsart.com