woman in hat with green collar

I've often wondered what made the great artists, great? What is it about their paintings that was so good, unique, unusual, daring and different? Why do we drool over Mona Lisa or wonder at the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel? (apart from the fact that Michelangelo had to lie down for years to paint it!).

Did the Masters do anything amazing in their life time or is it only after they've gone that we think of their art as masterpieces? No doubt, many a scholar has debated long and loudly about these questions and someone will surely have written a book on this subject. 

So, having done all this wondering, I decided that I'd like to join in with this months theme at Art Journal Journey, a blog I found a few weeks ago as I was searching up yet more creative delights! I like to have a prompt or idea to give me a direction in my journals and I liked this months theme at AJJ - "Inspired by the Masters"- so I had a quick ramble round the web and thought that I could possibly do a teeny bit of justice to Pablo Picasso. His 'Woman in Hat and Fur Collar' really appealed to me but as I didn't want to copy it directly, I just had a good long look at it and then started work a few days later. 

I used water soluble Oil Pastels and outlined in black acrylic paint. When I'd almost finished I had another look at Señor Picasso's painting and decided that mine was missing too many of the little added bits - thats why she has the checked collar and broken heart! Mine is also a lot 'sweeter' in looks than his ferocious female. I really like the original painting but I'm also quite fond of mine and will definitely try again with another painting from another Master. 

Woman in Hat and Fur Collar - Pablo Picasso
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia 

My children thought this one looked ghastly with her eye staring towards herself and also that there was too much 'busyness' in her face but I love her witchy green and yellow looks! In fact, I'm going to try to paint another one using these colours and more angles!!

And I'm still wondering about what makes some artists great…… even though it was much harder than I thought to make my painting look even vaguely like his!!


(For those of you that write German far far better than I do, please forgive the garbled language below! I write now and again for my non English speaking Austrian relatives, who, hopefully get the gist!!)

Ich bin jetzt viel beim malen und zeichnen und hab das obere Bild nach Picasso gemalt. Sie kommt mir vor wie eine grüne hex! Ich hab dabei viel spaß aber leider ist es nicht ganz so toll wie seines und bestimmt würde ich nie ein Meister!