One of the biggest treats about being in Washington DC is the first-class art, and first-class art experiences. This post is about the latter, as I am not necessarily enthralled with this painting....though, by the end of this post, you will see I have a greater appreciation of it than I did before. It is called "Pioneers of the West" and it is by Helen Lunderberg. She painted it in 1934...I think it definitely shows that era. She was a WPA artist and later moved to abstractions and hard edges. This particular painting is about 40" x 50" and shown in the Luce Center in one of their many glass display cases. It is interesting....it is not really in the galleries, and is part of the permanent collection that they have elected to keep on display in a special case. I should make another post about that space because it is amazing.
So...back to me. I went to the Luce Center at 2:30 today to join the sketching group. It happens every Tuesday afternoon. If you are in DC and are an artist, I HIGHLY recommend it. Today's assignment (about 20 artists participating) was to find a painting and then demonstrate how it meets a one-point perspective of drawing. I thought this was easy, but there are actually many perspectives in the painting I chose. It turns out most of us had that same problem.
However I gave it a good shot, and this is my result.
I am not impressed with my sketch, though the class consensus was that I got it "right" in terms of perspective. I think this is a good thing to think about, especially in landscapes. BTW, I go kudos from the museum staff on the gestures of the figures. I was the only student who "took on" this painting.
I would do this again!
Very thought provoking, Carolyn. You took on a huge challenge. I think Helen shifted perspective to make her painting more interesting than accurate. You did a great job and made me think how cool this would be to try this!
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