Not only does the above painting have IMMENSE sentimental value for me, but it's also probably the best watercolour I've ever done (not to be inmodest or anything...) I think it was when I was three or four, my parents took a random trip to Las Vegas Nevada and they went to see the Cirque du Soleil there, bringing back with them a prospectus thing with photographs of colourful jugglers, clowns, acrobats... I fell in love with the harmonious colours and the extravagance yet elegance of the pictures, and in particular, with the front cover, which I knew that one day I would be able to draw. And I did, when I was nine or ten. I rememebr I was so proud of that drawing, it had taken me hours if not days to finish! I'm so upset I can't find it now...but anyway. My theme for my externally set assignment for my AS Level Art was 'Covert and Obscured'. To begin with, I looked at the way in which external appearance may differ from what's truly under that outfit, that makeup, that facial expression, body language... And thus, I looked at art within the circus (incidentally relating to my previous entry, using paintings from the Thyssen, including one called 'Chico in a Top Hat' and 'The Fire Eater' or 'The Fire Breather'). 'Dralion' came back to me, and I revisited my past masterpiece by painting an ode to it, in watercolour. It was extremely hard to begin, but I think it's a copy which I've most thoroughly enjoyed completing during my brief life as an avid artist (?). 

I also dedicated it to someone very special, the person who saw me within the process and who saw the final result. 'Our Dragon'.

Keep arting, good sirs and ladysirs. 

Pissarro at the Thyssen

My siblings are away, I have extremely little to do, therefore it was relatively straightforward to convince my parents to come with me to the tomporary exhibition at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. The museum collects paintings by the impressionist Camille Pissarro in a brief but dense exhibition which I highly recommend to anyone who has the chance to see it.
I am a huge fan of impressionism. Since I can remember, there is a print of Van Gogh's 'St Petersburg' hung up in every different living room we've lived in since I was born. Thus my love for impressionism? Perhaps. Well, Pissarro reminded me a lot of Van Gogh anyway, which is odd because they had little to do with each other. Apparently, though, he and Monet were really close, and worked on sister pieces together. I would not have guessed this if it hadn't been for my Dad who rented the audioguide for the tour of the exhibition!
I realized that Pissarro had an extense love for paths and roads, which dominates most of his earlier paintings, when he painted natural landscapes. He also has an extremely modern way of painting certain things from unexpected oints of view-up in a tree, from his balcony when he was sick, from a difficult angle...This reminded me a bit of Dégas' way of capturing a scene in a photographic way, yet the latter combined with Pissarro's impressionist features beholds something extraoirdinary.

A copy of work by Egon Schiele by yours truly. I used gouache for the first time on pastel paper, and I think the effect is pretty accurate. The colours in mine are far richer than in Schiele's original, which kind of changes the essence of the piece. His wor is in Madrid's Thyssen museum and I remember seeing it for the first time, next to a similarly styled drawing by the same artist, how the light flow and uninterested way in which he draws and paints, fearlessly mixing media and painting in such a crude, raw manner is so apparent in Schiele's work. I fell in love with it. Yet, my copy has little to do with what he was striving to convey. Perhaps it's the media, or perhaps it's the fact that no matter how accurate you are in copying someone's art, you have a style that no one can imitate, not even yourself. It'll just appear in your works, whether you like it or not. And I think that this year has helped me come to realize that. And I am so grateful for it, it makes me want to create, create, create...