Remember this from the previous post? The ballet fail that I exorcised with a large dollop of white primer?
Well, I’m taking another run at light, this one based on a photo reference because it’s clear that imagining how bodies work is not going well, despite having seen many in my lifetime.
The photo is another Degas [those dresses] and I want again to modernise.
First I need the face to be a decent face because that will be the most ‘present’ feature. The rest I want to present as half drawn, half painted and not quite separate from its abstract background.
Looking at it now, it seems to me she is in a painting within a painting.
15th March. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I spent all morning yesterday putting in an eyeball and all afternoon taking it out again. Today I think it’s as there as it’s going to be without tearing a hole in the canvas and patching in a fresh piece.
Sassy woman, this one, where the original is either haughty or feigning haughtiness. I’ve titled the piece ‘Frock stays on, mate’ after Woman Seated on a Balcony by Edgar Degas 1872 and in the spirit of my stance on female nudity in art.
Strayfish Arts 
She definitely looks like she’ll take no prisoners. The Degas presence is strong BTW. What’s your stance on female nudity in art? sorry if you have written about it somewhere else.
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The more I looked at her, the more I realised she’s having none of it!
I think I’ve written about female nudity elsewhere and probably a good while ago because it’s a stance I took in the very first module. It goes deeper than this but the top line is that, after 40 years in the NHS where people ‘brought’ their bodies and minds to us for help, I can’t square that ethic with the reverse – people’s bodies being there for me. There’s a whole body of forensic knowledge too that makes me uncomfortable, so I don’t do life classes where nudity is the only option – not that there are any classes of any sort at the moment!
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