Painting stories, week 8

Last week the class took coloured pencils to the National Gallery to look at various ways stories have been told in pictures. I went on my own this week and was surprised to be stopped in my tracks (passing through one of the "brown, fleshy" rooms) by a painting dated to 1692-1700 by Luca Giordano. It's known as "Homage to Velasquez" but the man in the centre has now been identified as probably the Spanish ambassador to Naples.
Drawing makes you look harder. Drawing from a distance, even if you have poor eyesight, is no excuse for getting the proportions wrong, though!From the comfort of my seat, I couldn't make out what the shapes in the background were (ghostly figures?) and was intrigued by the dog in the foreground (didn't even see the other dog) - and by the artist portraying himself wearing glasses. Here's the actual painting -I particularly liked the foreground - like we were seeing a play on stage, and the real life was happening off-stage.

Class this week was collage. People had brought papers and fabric and magazines.
Spontaneous use of a student prospectus and an old copy of Metro, found under the sink, yielded a stream of hands flying through the air to land in Lady Mary's lap, and Mr Fox in silhouette - along with a lot of blurred "ladies" - ghosts?
The zigzag pattern on the dark area will be changed, the blurry figures will be painted in, and the stonework will get some work too - at least, that's the plan; plans change! My homework is to collect photos of banisters etc.

When we all put our paintings up on the wall, it was interesting to see how the gallery visit - and the infusion of collage - had changed people's work; the main changes were in format/composition (a circular racetrack bordering a painting about a cycling accident) and in details - for instance, the use of cut-out letters (s,h,e,e,p) instead of pictures of sheep.