I’m working on this drawing at the moment. It has my reflection in a silver Disney mug, taking a photo of the refection in the mug. So my camera has a wifi setting, I sent the photo to the iPad mini and I use that as a reference while I’m drawing. You possibly can’t make out the reflection of me with the camera yet but you will before it is finished.
Now we all know there is a huge leap between drawing from a picture on your iPad or phone and drawing or painting from real life, in terms of skill. [scroll down-post continues below the image]
When I saw this painting today “Self Portrait, New Studio Kettle” by RHA artist Una Sealy I could really appreciate the challenges she faced executing this work. Here you see her standing at her easel painting the kettle with her portrait reflected in the concave silver body.
It is obvious it is done from life rather than the lesser challenge of working from a 2D image. The artist Una Sealy had to not only transform a 3d form onto a 2d canvas, convey her own reflection distorted by the rounded shape of the kettle and also convince the viewer that this is a silver object without using metallic paint.
You can see this work yourself at the RHA 189th exhibition now open at the Royal Hibernian Gallery until the 10th of August 2019.
From my visit today I think I have chosen my person top 10 favourite artworks. I’m going to pop in again tomorrow to take another look – there are after all 500 pieces to see and then I will post my personal top 10.
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