Velasquez and Cherise

I’m a bit obsessed with Velasquez.  Especially one painting in particular called “The Water Carrier of Seville” 1619.

  (This title sort of sounds like Alfalfa singing, “I’m the barber of Seville.)

What I love about this painting has to do with the fading back of the figures, the heightened chiaroscuro and tenebrism, and check out the flow of the composition as it moves back into the shadows.  The faces are very interesting especially the old man AND check out that glass of water!  I’m pretty into painting glasses of water, check out my posts on it:

• Speaking of Painting Glasses of Water: Variations on a Theme

• How to paint a glass of water.

So, I posed some of my students.

Took some close up shots.

Here we go: Kenney Mencher's “The Water Carrier of Fremont” 48"x60"

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Similar blog posts about technique and the use and misuse of art history:

• Rembrandt, Matisse and Me
• Henri Matisse and Me
  
• Marcel Duchamp, Rrose Selavy, Mona Lisa, and Me
• Giacomo Balla and Me
• John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio and Me 
• Velasquez and Cherise
• N.C. Wyeth, Chuck and Me
• Me and Hopper: A Certain Slant of Light
• My Use and Abuse of Photo Reference 
• Themes in Art; Sequential Art 

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