Term Project - The Three Sitters by Cindy Sullivan
based on the print Three Famous Beauties by Kitagawa Utamaro
Deciding what to paint has never been an easy task. Narrowing down your ideas can be even more difficult, and when you start painting those ideas and finding out they were not quite what you wanted to paint, can be enough to make you put your brushes away, start the process over.
In my attempt to create a cohesive body of work, I’ve begun to paint 100 fractured versions of Japanese and other master prints and paintings (copyright free of course). My instructor, Jef Gunn, at PNCA (Pacific NW College of Art) who, upon seeing my term project said, “paint 100 of these and you will find something there”.
Why paint from these? Because I think the old masters have a lot to teach those who want to listen. Why fracture the originals? Because my goal isn’t to create a likeness, but to focus on the shapes, space and colors (hey, even Van Gogh and Picasso did this). To make up my own story of the painting and the people. Plus, I want to see what happens and maybe I really will find something there.
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