Copying the Masters - Hans Hofmann - August 2017

Intermediate Oils class continues! Our assignment was to choose a masterpiece and copy it. Most of my classmates paint pretty specific things - portraits, still lifes. I decided to paint an abstract, and one of my favorite abstract painters is Hans Hofmann.

Hans was part of the great abstract expressionist movement and taught many of the great artists in the 1930s and 40s. In 2015, his work, Auxerre, which was inspired by the stained glass windows of a cathedral in France, sold at auction for $6,325,000, a record high for the artist.

I chose this work, Elysium, to copy:

At first glance you might think is pretty easy. I know I did. Wrong :)

I began by blocking out all of the colors on a blank canvas. My classmates and teacher thought I was crazy to start out so precise, but honestly, I don't know another way. Here's how it developed over ~ 2 weeks.

Close up:

And the final work. The lights in my studio are super yellow, so this is tinted.

Here it is, hanging on the wall of our den

I also want to show you another Hans Hofmann copy I did last summer in acrylic. Pretty amazing to see the difference a year makes and the difference between oil and acrylic.

This is one of those paintings that you keep to remind you of how far you've come.