Faces 21 and 22

On top of the flu now so have to play catch up. I have decided for the remainder of my faces I am going to do portraits or copies of portraits by artists that have influenced me. Today two very different artists, American Georgia O”Keeffe (1887-1986) and German Egon Schiele (1890-1918), born at the same time in history, but lived their lives a world apart.

Face 21

 

Georgia O'Keeffe was a fascinating artist. She was the muse and mistress of a prominent 1930's and 40's US photographer, Alfred Stieglitz– I did this drawing from one of his photos. Yes she is holding a skeleton of a cow's head! She is best known for her flower studies especially, the lily. However, her landscapes are awesome mostly of New Mexico where she lived from the 40's till her death. She believed in the power of Nature –she tried to portray the divine harmony which embraces and connects all living things.

Face 22

Egon Schiele was a different kettle of fish. He was a product of the turmoil in Europe with the 1^st World War and all the new ideas that were floating around about human existence and the role of the artist. I have only ever seen his drawings but they fill me with sadness, he manages to portray intense emotion .

This drawing was completed when he was quite young (he died when he was only 28) Drawing this picture made me realize that his style has influenced me tremendously, and I did not believe that he had!