5 x 5″

oil on panel

sold

I do a lot of small studies, mostly to keep painting while I’m think about my next piece and to feel out how a photograph or featured artwork translates into a painting.  A generous Instagramer, Cilia, sent me the photo I used on this new painting, one of her viewing Henri Matisse’s Blue Nudes in the Kunsthaus Zurich Museum in Zurich, Switzerland.

Matisse completed a large series of ‘cut-outs’ after a surgery which left him in a wheelchair with a limited ability to paint on canvas.  He painted sheets of paper with various, solid colors of gouache, some more opaque than others, cut out organic shapes, overlapping and glueing, and created some of the most famous works of art in his lifetime.  Proving that adversity can take you to unexpected places you may not have gone before.