This is my first time painting a Vasari paint tube (I love many of Vasari's oil colors -- they are richly pigmented and pure). When I posted today's painting #OnTheEasel on facebook (pictured right), I also remembered the handful of other times I have painted paint tubes.A Few Thoughts on Trompe L'oeil
For the last three years, I've been intentional about only studying master paintings in real life in museums in NYC, DC, NJ, Philadelphia, and around the world (Italy, Cuba, South Korea, Spain, Brazil, etc). For me, this is a cherished break from the world of the internet.
Today's somewhat "trompe l'oeil-influenced" painting reminds me of my recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
On that visit, I spent a while studying Chardin's The Silver Tureen. Then I don't know if I would have walked over to the American wing if a friend and collector hadn't suggested it. Wow, I am glad I did. I spent a bit of time looking at two jaw-dropping landscapes (Kensett's Passing Off of the Storm and also his Eaton's Neck, Long Island) and then one of my favorite Saint-Gaudens works. I intended to stop in to the French landscape paintings exhibit that was on view, and go on to the Frick to see the Piero della Francescos and Degas drawings that were on view.... but I wound up spending a long time looking at the Petos and studying and drawing from The Artist's Letter Rack by Harnett.
The Philadelphia connection interests me, and I enjoy knowing that Peto and Harnett inherited the "rack" pictures subject matter from 17th Century Dutch painters (I'm Dutch).
I've been painting some small tromp l'oeil works over the last year, and I've been studying that Harnett painting for a while now. It's too early to really write much about it, but I will share that I'm curious and thinking about doing my own type of larger rack-type paintings -- in some way -- perhaps by commission. The idea of commissioned trompe l'oeil paintings came up for me because the Met's wall placard stated that Peto's rack paintings were most often commissioned, with objects containing clues about the identities of those doing the commissioning.
If you have any thoughts on this subject, I'd love to hear them. Please leave a comment.
If you're interested, view all my Current Painting Auctions and Available Paintings.
Happy Monday,
