Sunday 13 April 2014

Las Meninas

I have been taking an online course in Coursera lately called Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers. It has been really inspiring, I have got a lot new ideas on how to approach making images. It has also re-awakened my interest in art history and art theories (which I often find a bit pretentious and boring).

The assignment this week was to make a work that takes its inspiration from Velasquez's Las Meninas. In my version I maintained the composition and the relationships of the original painting but replaced the human (and canine) characters by flowers (what else 8-P).


Las Meninas is one of my favorite paintings (it has been my laptop screen background for years) so I loved this exercise. I am definitely going to make other versions too, use bit more ink to create dark background and same values than in the original.  (Unfortunately I didn't have too much time to experiment this weekend, busy arranging my boyfriend's birthday party.)

13 comments:

  1. This is so very interesting!! The composition and the colours of the flowers/the characters you've used...
    I like your interpretation of the door light (I would use black, I suppose..) Well, green is green...:)
    Happy Birthday party!

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    1. Thanks Rossichka! We had a nice party and I am full of energy to do more versions now...

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  2. Yes! a new post! I googled las Meninas. I must have seen it in artbooks before, but didn't remember. The way you treated this is wonderful! It's Sasa with a bit of Velasquez! The yellow flower is the bright little girl in the middle. She shines in the middel of the black grim looking girls. You made the background like the coulisses of a theatre stage. Big rocks, and yet I can still see the structure of the room in V's painting. Amazing! Like a puzzle. It's very inspiring. I can feel the fun of making this! Great!

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    1. It was really fun to do. I think I am going to do a lot of flower versions of famous art now... Maybe witch and her dogs next... :-P

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  3. I have an idea, Sasa, give your boyfriend one of these paintings for his birthday yours! (not a very original idea, right?)
    Yes Las Meninas, is really an exciting picture, and that can not be seen at once, is one of those paintings that you can see all your life, and will always have a mystery to discover.
    I always had a doubt about how the kings, allowed that the same Velazquez, appear in the painting.
    I always look at the graphic, and then read the post. You know that your painting, seemed to me, at first glance, a tattooed woman back :)
    very interesting your work!
    really!
    good week for you, and happy birthday to your boyfriend!
    PS: congratulations for the idea to replaced human by flowers!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. I love the idea of tattooed woman's back! Now that you mentioned it, I cannot see anything else...!

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  4. That is a fun assignment. I understand your blond-yellow flower looking at us, that is, at the parents mirrored in the background. I'm amazed how wonderful your replacement of the flowers works. Taken it without the reference to Velasquez's Las Meninas, it looks like all flowers are competing for a sunny spell and the beautiful yellow flower in the centre gets the most.
    Very nicely done, Sasa.

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  5. Interesting work, Sasa ! Looks to me as a very nice design for a very expensive dress (gown) . I like the colours you used in this piece. Harmony, serenity, calmness
    but also some slightly disturbing tension..nice

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    1. My dream is to design textiles for expensive gowns so very happy now :-)

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  6. Hi Sasa, i just came to tell you Happy Easter, I dont know and no matter if, perhaps, Easter does not mean anything to you, I greet you with my best wishes :) ♥

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  7. I like that you created something completely different and unexpected. If you show me this work I would not think inmediately of las meninas but once you mention it
    I can see the infanta, the other girls and even Velázquez himself as a dark flower on the left :)

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  8. Great idea, love your art work!

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