by Barbara Downs | Jan 30, 2012
I’ve been working on some large-scale pieces lately with my painting group. We’ve been working on 6’x9′ unstretched cotton canvas, stapled to the wall. I’m using primarily acrylic paint and gesso, along with various drawing materials. The...
by Barbara Downs | Nov 5, 2011
At Open Studios, someone asked me why I don’t paint faces on my figures, which caused me to pause and question myself, “Do I paint faces?” Of course I do! They stare down at me from the paintings on my walls. My figures–and faces–have...
by Barbara Downs | Aug 17, 2011
On to Caravaggio. I’m a great admirer, but I know he has his detractors. “Too theatrical!”. “Painted in front of a backdrop, no sense of defining place”. Ok, ok, perhaps true, but perhaps that theatricality is what I like so much...
by Barbara Downs | Aug 12, 2011
What I love about Tintoretto are all those moving, writhing figures. Everyone in the picture plane is twisted in one direction or another, foreshortened to some degree. Figures grab and hold onto each other. There is drama and intrigue and narrative. This painting,...
by Barbara Downs | Aug 6, 2011
Titian, the great master, provides fertile ground with which to work. This particular painting, The Madonna Pesaro, has been on my mind for years. In my university days, I wrote a paper musing about the way that he turned an otherwise-static donor-family-in-the-corner...
