That Girl in the Mirror

A reinterpretation of "Girl Before a Mirror" http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=78311

This was interesting because I approached the painting as a self portrait so it became a reflection or a reflection viewed through the distorted lens of the mind's eye. In terms of the history of the original work, I don't know if a man can truly interpret what a lady is seeing when she is contemplating her reflection. I'm pretty sure most if it is probably not what he thinks it is, mortality notwithstanding.

The day-time face of Harlequin

This painting (36"x24") was not, originally, a part of our Picasso-challenge project. It began as a study of seated male nude, and then evolved into an attempt of translation into painting of a poem by Alexander Blok (I wrote about it here and here).

As I was working on this painting, I was deliberately looking for visual cultural links,  idioms of the target language of my attempt at translation. However, a mysterious trickery of my brain created a kind of temporal amnesia as far as Picasso's treatment of Harlequin (and related paintings) are concerned. I've known and loved these paintings all my life, and yet I did not think once about them. My suspicion is that one side of me knew that if I "remembered" these paintings, I would simply abandon this project -- since they are really as close to the perfect counterpart of Blok's poem as humanely possible.

They did come back to me in the course of our Picasso challenge -- too late for me to abandon the painting, but just in time to remove the last stumbling block (the background and some aspects of its interaction with the figure).  

Self Portrait Picasso

This my version of Picasso's brilliant self portrait. I deliberately darkened his eyes(as opposed to the original) to accentuate his face and give a more somber expression.

Pablo´s immortals

Oil on canvas © Tarja Ollas

The blind guitarrist is now relaxing and sees everything - like Picasso having daylight nightmares of his dead wifes.

Copy After Picasso's "Nude and Still Life, c. 1931"

Copy After Picasso’s “Nude and Still Life, c. 1931″ Oil on canvas 18″ x 12″ © 2011 Marilyn Fenn

When I first found this work online, I thought it looked like a cartoon version of a Picasso painting, or what Picasso would paint if he were painting a cartoon version of his own work. It is such a fun image, I couldn’t resist!

You can read about my process of creating this painting at my website/blog here: http://marilynfenn.com/a-copy-after-picasso/

Pablo Picasso. Queen Isabel. 1909

Pablo Picasso. Queen Isabel. 1909.

This blog is organized to record the results of a "Picasso challenge" we've just completed on Google+, and, if it works, for further painting challenges. Every participant of the challenge(s) will have the option of posting their contribution, preferably with some comments, here, so that the results won't drown in Google+ fast streams.