My painting students are making studies inspired by masterworks. Dorothy Gleser, a student in Abstraction class chose Bruegel’s Wedding Dance for her studies.
She started by charting the composition, studying the underlying forms of the whole. She found a tidy triangle, an organized geometry within the hullabaloo.
A symmetrical triangle within the composition of figures
She studied the pattern and repetition of the pieces. She examined each character in the painting, and figured out the bride was the one with her orange hair out, and in black. Black clothing dye, as our resident textiles expert Lucy Garnett points out, would have been very expensive at that time, so appropriate for a wedding dress.
The bride is in black, with her hair down
Then Dorothy got distracted by the dancing pants. In particular, the codpieces.
Dancing pants study by Dorothy Gleser, acrylic on paper
A codpiece is a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers, enclosing the man’s cod, worn in the 15th and 16th centuries.It may be held closed by string ties, buttons, folds, or other methods. It was an important fashion item of European clothing during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Codpieces
In response, Dorothy made this painting, in which the bride is shown with flowing orange hair and black dress (upper left), dancing with the proud groom (center), the musician playing (right), and two of the bride’s rejected suitors drunk and on the floor. Please note that this painting is unfinished, but I was too excited about it to not share. I love this!
Dorothy Gleser’s Wedding Dance after Bruegel (unfinished), acrylic on paper
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text] The surrealist movement was, in part, a reaction to fascism. As a student I assumed some of the surrealist art was motivated by political protest, a refusal to make sense or be pretty. Looking around today at a world I thought I understood, but …
The lower half of the painting is, I think, some of the best painting I’ve ever done. I consider the upper half of the painting to be unfinished. This painting was a part of my 2016 series Neither Will This Stay; Paintings Full of Emptiness. I was learning to focus with a turbulent mind. I practiced buddhist …
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”8071″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text] Drawings by Ruthie V. I received a very nice letter today. It’s about line, and how one League artist improved her quality of line – not by thinking about improving …
Guest blogger: Erin Goodwin-Guerrero Embracing Mixed-media, Print and Paint Ruthie’s V notes always interest me. So, I could not fail to respond to comments on the painter’s frustration with printmaking. [V. Note: What I Hate About Printmaking] Yes, painting feels more immediate and printmaking requires the artist to spend tons of time preparing for an image (that …
Dancing Cod-pieces
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]
The Wedding Dance, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567
My painting students are making studies inspired by masterworks. Dorothy Gleser, a student in Abstraction class chose Bruegel’s Wedding Dance for her studies.
She started by charting the composition, studying the underlying forms of the whole. She found a tidy triangle, an organized geometry within the hullabaloo.
A symmetrical triangle within the composition of figures
She studied the pattern and repetition of the pieces. She examined each character in the painting, and figured out the bride was the one with her orange hair out, and in black. Black clothing dye, as our resident textiles expert Lucy Garnett points out, would have been very expensive at that time, so appropriate for a wedding dress.
The bride is in black, with her hair down
Then Dorothy got distracted by the dancing pants. In particular, the codpieces.
Dancing pants study by Dorothy Gleser, acrylic on paper
A codpiece is a covering flap or pouch that attaches to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers, enclosing the man’s cod, worn in the 15th and 16th centuries.It may be held closed by string ties, buttons, folds, or other methods. It was an important fashion item of European clothing during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Codpieces
In response, Dorothy made this painting, in which the bride is shown with flowing orange hair and black dress (upper left), dancing with the proud groom (center), the musician playing (right), and two of the bride’s rejected suitors drunk and on the floor. Please note that this painting is unfinished, but I was too excited about it to not share. I love this!
Dorothy Gleser’s Wedding Dance after Bruegel (unfinished), acrylic on paper
Dorothy Gleser painting
Related Posts
Surrealism and Fascism
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text] The surrealist movement was, in part, a reaction to fascism. As a student I assumed some of the surrealist art was motivated by political protest, a refusal to make sense or be pretty. Looking around today at a world I thought I understood, but …
My painting “Sisters” is on display, unfinished
The lower half of the painting is, I think, some of the best painting I’ve ever done. I consider the upper half of the painting to be unfinished. This painting was a part of my 2016 series Neither Will This Stay; Paintings Full of Emptiness. I was learning to focus with a turbulent mind. I practiced buddhist …
A Drawing is a Record of Your Engagement
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”8071″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text] Drawings by Ruthie V. I received a very nice letter today. It’s about line, and how one League artist improved her quality of line – not by thinking about improving …
Erin Goodwin-Guerrero: Embracing Mixed-media
Guest blogger: Erin Goodwin-Guerrero Embracing Mixed-media, Print and Paint Ruthie’s V notes always interest me. So, I could not fail to respond to comments on the painter’s frustration with printmaking. [V. Note: What I Hate About Printmaking] Yes, painting feels more immediate and printmaking requires the artist to spend tons of time preparing for an image (that …