Dress Rehearsal…

In 21 Day Painting Challenge, Painting by Zoe Nathan

Three months later I’m back, but only to do a practice painting for a commissioned portrait. I want to finally finish up the series. I got the 14th painting further along than before but have been too busy this summer to get back to it or post my progress. Here’s the start for the commissioned portrait of a boy: For the actual painting I won’t use such a tight grid. I just wanted the structure it provides to get back into drawing and painting and get my hand moving without thinking too much. By the way! I went to see the huge exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and it was incredible! Though, because of the crowding, it was far more pleasant seeing her work in the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City and in her house in Coyoacan. The SF MOMA was packed even on a Monday morning! I may have to see it again in the Fall. The show ends on September 28th. One thing that struck me was seeing some of her paintings for the first time, I couldn’t believe how off I was on imagining the scale of her works! The most detailed paintings that I thought surely had to be over three or four feet large were barely fifteen inches. Likewise, ones that I thought were probably fairly small and personal were large. A good example is her wedding portrait. Seeing the detail and actual colors in the paintings that I have attempted or am attempting to reproduce was extremely valuable because a lot of it doesn’t come across accurately in books.