Mother and Child

Summer has arrived on the wild northern Pacific coast. Suddenly cars and windows need to be washed and gardens need tending to not to mention just spending a warm sunny afternoon reading amidst the flowers! I have been working but not spending a lot of time online so am a bit behind on posting. There has been several small art events to attend in town which have been fun to look at.
We had a treat in Life Drawing yesterday. We had been enjoying drawing a model throughout her pregnancy. The last time she modeled for us she was very near her delivery time and in fact, did indeed give birth to a bouncing baby boy a few days after our last session with her!
Yesterday she came back to model for us with her beautiful 4 week old baby boy. We didn't time each pose as the poses were dependent on the mother and baby being comfortable. Some they were able to hold for quite a while and others they were not. Seeing the expression of the young mother and baby gazing into each others eyes was magical and touching. Here are the sketches I did:

The last picture had quite a bit of foreshortening. The model is a calm and patient mother which bodes well for her baby as well as being a treat for us to draw. Needless to say we all doted on the baby during the breaks. On a side note, it was also interesting to observe that the skin tones of mother and child matched perfectly.
So I couldn't resist featuring none other than Mary Cassatt for my next woman artist in the series. Mary Cassatt is well known for her Mother and Child themes in her paintings. When asked to name women artist, Cassatt's name is usually one of the first to be listed. Cassatt studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1861 and continued her studies in Paris four years later. Much is written and well known about Cassatt so I am not going to go into a lot of detail here. It seems like she was fortunate to be in a time and place where her skills were nurtured and appreciated. It would be wonderful if that was not a rarity in the history of women artists. Here is a good website to check out http://www.marycassatt.org. I will wrap up this post with one of her beautiful mother and child paintings in the spirit of our life drawing session yesterday.

I should add, I have been having problems with posting comments on my own blog in response to comments that are made. I will follow up on any comments in my next post. Comments are greatly appreciated and enjoyed!
-Renee