Charming
Acrylic on cardboard
40 x 60 cm
This is the painting that was inspired primary by style of famous French artist Raoul Dufy. The way that mister used colors with the combination of effortless brush strokes, which literally drew out the entire scene, fascinates me greatly. Cartoon and comic like, but with the great mastery and reckless precision which we can see only in strokes of the well trained arm.
Another inspiration for this painting comes from the sketch I did in the backyard of the Zagreb's coffee shop. I liked the way large buildings were interlaced with large trees, between which the coffee is placed.
The sketch needed to be redrawn on the piece of cardboard, only this time in larger scale, and deformed. I decided to make the space much bigger, the buildings taller. So in the end the coffee shop turned out to be a large square or a street, as you will. This decision resulted with a lot of 'empty' space, which I was about to fill with line-work after positioning the first colors.
PAINTING PROCESS:
Before even starting with the painting process, I found out about the ways painter Duffy was creating his paintings, so I could mimic the style more easily.
Trying to mimic the artistic style of great masters is challenging, also at first often seems effortless. But just giving a try, ends up with finally understanding why exactly certain old painters are to be admired and learned from.
My hand is definitely not as relaxed and trained as Dufy's, which is visible in my brush strokes; but I think this piece was a well effort overall, and a nice and a fun way to step outside my usual comfort zones.
All photographs are taken by me. The process is recorded with cellphone camera, the finished artwork with Nikon D5600
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