I was lucky enough to get to study a semester abroad in Spain during my sophomore year in college. It was there in Madrid where I fell in love with French artists Paul Cézanne's Portrait of a Peasant.
Maybe it was all of the still life paintings my high school art teacher made me paint to practice the craft, but I will forever be in awe of this great modern master's extreme patience to sit and create them. It is said that he began turning his attention to still life paintings of fruit because he wanted to create something "solid and durable, like the art of the museums". What's even more interesting is how his fruit paintings don't fully resemble the realistic items, some say, because they had simply rot before he finished painting them. I love that he just kept on painting, it really adds such character.
Check out Google's 'doodle' honoring his 172 birthday today ( this simply means to go to http://www.google.com/, Mom :)
Hey, guess what? It's midweek! Happy hump day y'all!
lovely post! cezanne is one of my favorites too! i am so jealous you spent a semester in spain! my boyfriend and i are visiting madrid and barcelona in september so i might have to email you for trip suggestions later :) xoxo jcd
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Ah, Cezanne--his work truly is lovely. I remember studying his still lifes in high school, and being eternally disappointed that his human skulls and bowls of fruit were unmatchable.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!!! I love the idea of painting rotting fruit. That just strikes me as inspired.
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