Jean Burman

artwork & content - Copyright 2007 Jean Burman

Gen X - watercolour 22″ x 30″ on 640gsm Arches

Although she bears no resemblance at all… this painting nonetheless found it’s inspiration in the iconic oil portrait of Madame Gautreau (or Madame X as the work was later re-named) painted in 1884 by John Singer Sargent.

From the outset… my intention was not to copy the great artist or his work (even if that were possible *wink*)… but rather… to capture something of the spirit of the “pose”. It was the “pose” in particular which has held my fascination… and finally threw out the irresistible challenge to attempt my own humble version!

From laissez faire beginnings… and a very rough idea of what I was setting out to do… this painting suddenly and quite unexpectedly took on a life of it’s own… and proved in the end to be a most delightful and fascinating process of discovery for me. Although not without the requisite “struggle”… I enjoyed almost every single step along the way to capturing her. And I just have to say… I am rather proud of the strong, independent woman who has burst forth onto the paper!

Just who she is is shall remain a mystery (even to me)… for she exists only as she appears here… a few globs of paint mixed with water… on a large sheet of Arches rough!

But in many ways she represents “modern woman” hence the title Gen X which… whist giving the nod to Sargent and his late 19th century Madame X… also alludes to the strong independent women of modern day Generation X. I thought it was an interesting parallel.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under That's Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.