Painted ladies

A book about 10cm square, fell off the shelf the other day - it was my painted ladies - watercolours done in 2003 after a course at Dulwich Art Gallery in which we did paintings in the studio (from reproductions) after looking at the real thing in the gallery. When you're "forced" to plug away at something, and start to get the hang of it, it's very encouraging -- so when I got home I pulled out lots of postcard portraits of women through the ages and started filling this little notebook. Got as far as the centre stapled page, and then got sidetracked.
"Copying" the paintings on the postcard was an education for the eye. This one is after a portrait by Picasso (spot the difference!) -

The lady in the wide-brimmed hat is my favourite - she's in a painting by the painter FCB Cadell, one of the Scottish colourists.

This might be Ann Boleyn ... or it might not ...

Her hat marks her out as Italian, 1400s - I enjoyed using the rich colour of the hat much more than the hair colours and flesh tones - but after doing face after face, started to "see" the variations of colour.

While you're intent on mastering all the subtleties at once, you might not notice basic things - like the faces are all a bit narrow, squeezed ...


Another one after a Scottish painter, but I don't remember who - and can't find the postcards....

A much slicker look at women in art through time is this YouTube video.