the Milkmaid

The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer
c. 1658-60 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 45.4 x 41 cm (17 7/8 x 16 1/8 in); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This is the painting I will be spending the next three months reproducing literally from the "ground" up. Using authentic ground pigments for most but lead white, preparing my own sizing and ground, working with oil glazes in a similar way to Vermeer's own. My course, Historical Techniques of the Artist, is so incredible. Our teacher is one of the most knowledgable and frank people I know and has taught me so very much thus far. I feel like I'm actually a renaissance apprentice in this course, it's so exciting. It's unfortunate that this is not mandatory, I think every art student should be required to learn these things.

Quick, and long-overdue post

See this picture? As dismal as it seems, this is how Toronto should normally look in the winter. Big, industrial, grey, and snowy. This photo was taken around a week ago... would you believe that now, mid-January, the snow has been replaced by grass?

It's windy, but there are reasonably warm rains, temperatures around the +5 level. And no snow. The most I've seen in the past few days were the diminished leftovers of plowed snowpiles. You can't trust Toronto to be consistent with anything but poor adherence to bus scheduling rules! Where'd winter go? *flails arms*