Posts tagged as:

life drawing

La Belle Femme

February 14, 2010 · 12 comments

La Belle Femme 1Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.

It was a couple of days before Christmas… and La Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]

As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook. I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]

La Belle Femme 3

The making of the Music…

Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!

The making of the Art…

The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.

It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!

Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.

La Belle Femme 2Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!

And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn.  Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way!  [Grin]

By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.

Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.

Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong” to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life!  He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist!  But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!

Enjoy the clip!  Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!

For availability of original artworks

and to see more… contact

Jean Burman Galleries [click here]

La Belle Femme – Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

Sweet Addiction – Music © 2010 Daniel Marolla

All Rights Reserved

{ 12 comments } Leave a comment

Subscribe For Email Updates

Become a regular here at the blog!
Enter your email address below:


It may be a man’s world… but it would be nothing without a (pesky & persistent) woman!

kevmax

“KRudd Boots N’All”

Cartoon Pen & Watercolour 8″x 12″

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman

another entry in www.NewMatilda.com.au Political Cartooning Competition

(and yes… oops… Barack has one R!)

With a Dad and three brothers in my childhood home… my mother and I were used to the rough and tumble of living in a house full of boys.  Consequently I think boys are great.  Different entirely to girls… who are okay too mind you… but way more complicated (grin). Boys on the other hand are pretty straight forward.  They say what they mean and mean what they say… punch first… ask questions later… that sort of thing.  (Though I hasten to add… being the only girl in a family of boys had it’s strategic advantages too cos no-one was allowed to punch me!  Ha!)  

I have always found the notion of being a woman in a man’s world rather intriguing.  The idea of mixing it with the boys who definitely seem to have the numbers in almost every arena (including cartooning) doesn’t really faze me… I grew up with boys remember?  But still sometimes my ignorance of any tangible sort of philosophical difference between the genders still surprises me.

This ignorance has on occasion led me inadvertently into a number of humourous situations.  Like the time I blithely sailed into the Gentlemen’s Room in the Qantas Lounge at LA International Airport… (incredibly jet lagged and in transit)… sending all assembled gents into an intercontinental flat spin and the room into an all-out unholy panic. Pandemonium ensued… as redfaced I realised my error.  [I shall never again underestimate the power of a woman to clear the mens room in under 30 seconds flat!]  I do however  swear on my life to never ever do it again!  Anyway by the by.  I hadn’t intended to tell you that story… but it was funny at the time… and what the hey!

What I had intended to tell you about was the new Life Drawing Session I went to the other night.  No stranger to life drawing… and being used to a “mixed” group… it took a comment fully half way through the three hour session to alert me to the fact that besides the model… I was the only female in the room.  

“There’s life drawing on Monday mornings too you know” came the wake up call that enlightened me.

“Oh thanks” I responded appreciatively to the kind gentleman beside me… still not entirely getting it.  

“but Monday doesn’t suit… and Wednesday night is just fine by me…”  I trailed off

As the last word spilled confidently from my lips the realisation hit me.  I looked around at the bunch of friendly and (don’t get me wrong) more than perfectly well behaved guys in the group and realised for the first time that I was definitely the odd man out.

I chatted with the model out in the kitchen over a cup of tea on our break… and learned that she too had no nonsense boys in her life and was unfazed (despite her lack of apparel) by the prospect of being in a room full of blokes. Though I’ve got to say… I reckon her courage exceeded mine by a very large measure! LOL 

Undeterred I pushed on into the second half and left with a reasonable assortment of 2, 5, and 10 minute sketches.  Whilst they are not serious art… I find quick sketches great for figure referencing in subsequent paintings.  And life sketches do have a spontaneous freshness that is sometimes hard to beat.       

p102063510 minute sketch 

Willow stick on cartridge paper

Copyright 2009 Jean Burman 

I think I shall go back again next week… what do you reckon?  

If only to stir things up a bit?   Heavens knows I need the practice!

{ 9 comments } Leave a comment

Subscribe For Email Updates

Become a regular here at the blog!
Enter your email address below: