A new year’s resolution

portraits and figures

I do not usually make new year resolutions, but for 2025 I have decided to try my hand at portrait and figure painting. It is not that I feel I have already mastered landscapes and still lifes so that I can now move onto new themes. It is just that I have developed a desire to paint people, which is new to me. Maybe my visits to the National Portrait Gallery and the John Singer Sargent exhibition at the Tate last year have influenced me.

Master copy of Gabrielle Cot by Bouguereau

There are many interesting and attractive people in my village who would make excellent subjects. I hope some will be willing models but, before I approach them, I think a few exercises are required. Some drawings perhaps, and a new master copy. I have already attempted to copy William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s mesmerising picture of Gabrielle Cot and his Tricoteuse Bretonne. They are a far cry from the originals but the effort was enlightening.

Master copy painting of 'Tricoteuse Bretonne' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau — Master copy – ‘Tricoteuse Bretonne’ by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Now for something different, I will attempt to replicate Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard. I love a challenge.

Picture of a Boy Bitten by a Lizard — Boy Bitten by a Lizard