Gary J. Kirkpatrick Art and Travel Blog
Posting original art
Pechersk Lavra is also called the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves. It is an Orthodox Christian monastery located on the cliffs overlooking the Dnieper River in Kiev. There are extensive caves which were occupied by monks. There are beautiful church domes.
I joined with two other artists in Valencia to hire a model with whom we enjoyed working. She is able to hold long poses. Over three hours I painted her in acrylics and later added the clothing and background. I took as inspiration for the background the landscape paintings of Van Gogh, with a twist.
In the Park in St Petersburg Russia is set in a popular park along the river. The ghost-like appearance of some people really struck me. Russian faces, a bright brass steeple, a Kupka inspired background.
From a drawing made at the Palau de la Musica
I happened to catch one of my granddaughters on the sofa during the recent visit. Pen and ink
Starting with a life drawing session, I added a some landscape with VanGogh’s wheat fields in mind, particularly Wheat Field With Lark (the muse), changing to the purple drippingness.
Ode to Artemisia Gentileschi, 1593 – c. 1656.
Portrait of Young Man, pastels, after the Rubens sketch. Rubens and other artists of the time would use the same figure in multiple paintings.
This is my pastel of the famous John Singer Sargent painting title Madam X. It was quite controversial at the time since she was portrayed with bare shoulders. She begging him not to display it but he refused but it came to be known as Madam X. At his peak Sargent earned the equivalent of over $1M for a portrait. There is an excellent collection at the Metropolitan in NYC.
