Painting of Rome's Campo dei Fiori Market

Today was wonderful. I struggled for the rest of last week in Sherrie McGraw's workshop ... trying to get it, thinking while painting (a tough combination ... as I tell my drawing 101 students), learning new materials, attempting to be a good student, absorbing all I could. I created some funny-looking work even though I had great inspiration. (Coming out with acceptable paintings wasn't the point ... learning was.)

But, today, I just breathed. Painted and reflected and found that I'd learned some invaluable lessons that are going to greatly influence my work. I picked back up on "Fresh Produce", a painting of a produce vendor from the Campo dei Fiori market in Rome. Husband Randy and I took an art historical trip there over Easter week this year. This was a break from art history.

One lesson I applied here was to think about what function I wanted each of the parts of my painting to play ... did I want it to be a dark or light. And, regardless of reality, how did I want to orchestrate the music of light and dark on the canvas to tell my story? An unusual approach, but one I see clearly taken in the work of Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Raphael. It's all about the light and its shape.

See more of my market paintings in the Places and Still Life Galleries on my web site: www.jillbanks.com.

This is still a work in progress. Check back.

"Fresh Produce" work in progress, oil on Senso linen, 20"h x 16"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
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Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435