Hanging out with Fra Filippo Lippi

I like to do a master copy every year in egg tempera class.

The medium suits master copies, plus Doug is there to talk me off my many inevitable ledges of artistic despair. And tell me what my issues are and how to fix them. And I had much despair and many issues while painting this.

This year I scrambled my head with the famous Madonna painting by Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469).

I wanted to do a long portrait, slow, very opposite of all my plein air work.  It's good balance.

So, I started this at the beginning of October and thought I'd work with it and finish sometime in Jan-Feb.

Nope, Doug announced our class show hangs on Jan 17th for the opening on Jan 20th!

So I got all stressed out and thought I'd have to work on her at home... but it turns out I ended up finishing her last week in class. Phew!

Yesterday she got framed. She looks good.

I learned a lot from doing this painting.

There is something about doing master copies that puts you in a different mindset, a journey through someone else's process. It's very intimate. I absorbed- downloaded- a lot, but I'm not sure how to put it into words.

In class we have unofficial spots where we always sit.

I like to sit right next to Karen because she's amazing and a much better painter than I am, so I suck up her painting vibes. She has plenty of those to spare.

9x12 egg tempera and metal leaf on Ampersand Claybord, about 25-30 hours.

*******

Here are some progress shots: