Tuesday, February 06, 2007

From my O'Keeffe drawing series


Georgia was photographed by her companion, Maria Chabot while they were on a painting expedition in the dessert . Imagine what it would be like to camp out in the areas surrounding Abiquiu, New Mexico in the early 1940's. In the book Full Bloom by Hunter D. Philip, she writes, " Chabot often wondered if people admiring O'Keeffe's serene and seemingly effortless pictures realized that the artist endured driving rainstorms and freezing winds to gain a more profound experience of the landscape."

I took more liberties with this drawing than previous ones. I departed from the original photo reference in some ways. The photo shows more of the diagonals of the tent in the background, but I chose to fill in the areas with dark tones. I was struck by the pose of the artist combing her hair and added more detail to the hair than was visible in the photo. I also played around with highlights on the legs to make the seated pose look more believable in the picture plane.

Just when I thought I had enough from this series, another photo of O'Keeffe grabbed my attention and I ran to the art supply store for some more good drawing paper. I'm on a mission.

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