The Artist in Her Studio

Rembrandt, The Artist in His Studio, 24.8 x 31.7, oil on canvas

Me, Favorite Painting So Far, 16 x 20, oil on Ampersand Gessobord

I was never a fan of Rembrandt (I am now) until I saw Simon Schama's The Power of Art series and the segment on Rembrandt began with this painting. I loved it. This young artist, Rembrandt in his 20s, stands back from the power of a white canvas that radiates light; inspiration. I loved the idea that the empty canvas was not the "enemy" as the "white page" was portrayed by Hemingway ("Oh, poor me, I'm an artist") but as something really great, a "light bringer."

When I went to Italy in 2004, I spent a couple of nights in Munich. The first night after I arrived (in the morning) I literally fell asleep without knowing it. I woke up some time later the window was open and light from an Indian restaurant down the street was coming through the window into my otherwise dark room. I decided I wanted to paint the scene since I haven't tried any figures at all since I started this painting thing, except for the figures on the thangka I did FIRST in 2009.

As I painted on the Ampersand Gessobord I experimented with colors. I used Alizarin crimson because it's so beautiful, but it's also intense and transparent. I also used Indian Yellow, same reasons, and Ultramarine Blue, same reasons. I used a new kind of black that Gamblin has come up with, Chromatic Black, and liked it. It doesn't act like "black" and take over everything; it just wanted to join in and help, and did beautifully. I used Gamblin's Zinc white, for the most part, but then Titanium white for highlights.

Then in the midst of painting this I realized WHAT I was painting (besides wanting to play with colors and remember that moment and paint a figure). When I left Munich I was heading to Verona where I was looking for anything I could to help me imagine the world of one of the characters of Martin of Gfenn. I was going to study Italian, follow Goethe and look at paintings. I would say now (and I realized as I worked on this painting) I was looking for inspiration in the outside world.

As I painted I realized I was painting the opposite of Rembrandt's painting. He is in a studio, looking at a canvas. There are no visible windows and the light comes from the canvas. He's active, attentive. In my painting, the artist is konked out, one could say passive, but I'm not sure sleep this intense is passive. That was hard-core, give-it-all-you-got sleeping. Realizing I was painting inspiration, which was coming through the window from the outside world, I decided to use gold leaf on  the wall above the subject's head. Ultimately, I didn't. I used Gamblin's gold paint which worked better and looked better to me than the cheezey coppery fake gold leaf I had ordered. I can use it for something else. The Gamblin gold is bronze particles but mixes beautifully with the Indian yellow for a more intense "gold" and it's shiny.