Majority of the art I create is abstract. Fall leaves is an abstract painting and is really a reproduction of a photograph I took one rainy Fall day. Our book club trip in Columbus took us to a spa off the beaten track with warm people who took care of us on a cold rainy Fall day. I can’t wait to paint the realistic picture of this exquisite wonder of nature. These are just Fall leaves on a tar pathway. The vivid colors of the maple leaves were a feast to my eyes. It was a photograph I took with my trusty iPhone and manipulated it to an abstraction. Tea House in Guangzhou is also a painting of a photograph I took on my visit to China. I am a world traveler. I love to paint beautiful things. This Tea house looked like a painting to me so I painted it. Our world is a beautiful place blessed with many beautiful people. This landscape was created by people just like us. I hope we take the time to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation and the creations of people like you and me. I hope my paintings will inspire us all to be more kind to each other and appreciate all that is good in this world.
Fall Leaves – Oil on Canvas by Hyacinth Paul
Halloween Mixed Media – Acrylic on Canvas by Hyacinth Paul
The question I would like to explore today is “Why should you reproduce Master Works and is there any benefit in doing so?” I have been resisting the idea of reproducing works of Masters because I always like to create my own paintings that have my ideas on canvas. I do take workshops and private lessons. Realism fascinates me and I think it is a very difficult skill to master. Most of my private lessons have been to study realism. The serious exploration of this technique started with a photograph I took in China and I painted Tea House in Hangzhou in private lessons. It took me a long time to complete it but I learnt a lot during the painstaking process.
Recently I attended a workshop on painting like Monet. It is said that Monet painted fast. He loved painting plein aire which means out in the open.
Here is the art work in progress. It took me about six hours to reach this stage.
Study of Monet Lillies Painting Take I – Oil on Canvas by Hyacinth Paul
I have since read up on how Monet painted and I will post the completed painting once it is done. You will notice that there are elements of my abstraction sneaking up on an impressionism painting. I guess every artist has a style all their own and it somehow shows up unknowingly in their works even if they are reproducing the works of a Master!
To answer the question of whether reproducing famous artworks is beneficial I will point to some of the resources that have shed some light here and here.
This would be the first painting I will be reproducing and I can’t wait to show it to you once it is complete. Having done this, I must agree with the wisdom that reproducing a piece of art makes you study the art and the artist in depth. What is seemingly an easy piece of art to reproduce becomes rather complicated once you attempt it.
