Twisting Figure, nos. 1,2, oil on canvas, 24×48 in.,originally uploaded by ahtravis.
Twisting Figure, nos. 1 and 2
I have painted a companion piece to my “Twisting Figure”. The inspiration for the shape in these paintings came from sketches of an armless and headless Roman sculpture of Aphrodite in the Louvre, Paris. I sketched the statue from four vantage points and used three of them in the two paintings here.
The sketches were made during my Paris experience with the Paris-American Academy and painting tutor, Calum Frasier. Frasier is an art historian, as well as a fabulous teacher. As supplement to the painting part of the program during that summer of 2007, we artists toured the well known and lesser know art museums in Paris and nearby suburbs where we benefited from his extraordinary knowledge. The notes in my sketchbook, written at the time, indicate that Degas, Cézanne, Bonnard and Matisse, all used this figure in their paintings of bathers. Calum recalled a past exhibit at the Louvre that had brought the paintings and this and other sculptural inspirations together. I would have loved to have seen it.
The paint on my canvases was thickly applied with palette knives and took a long time to dry. Yesterday it seemed that they both could be safely hung on the wall of the livingroom in Massachusetts.
bragg hollow studio 