The Giacometti Series

Over the past two years, I have learned the importance of studying the master artists, like Alberto Giacometti. I originally had the idea to paint a copy of one of Giacometti’s portraits, the goal being to understand how Giacometti viewed the human figure and how he was able to create depth and distance in each painting. So, I began my journey completing sketches of the many works in the collection. After a few sketches I started to notice how all the pieces work together in the room. The way that the room is set up simulates a Giacometti painting itself. The podiums of the sculptures create structure for the figures to sit on and the sculptures together act as a group of people. Once I realized that I was more interested in the room itself than only one sculpture or one painting, I began creating sketches of several different views of the room. I returned to my studio and from my sketches and my memory of the room, I created several paintings. I repeated this process until I was able to create a painting that captured the spirit of the collection through the focus of how the sculptures relate to each other. My sketches captured the essence of the room, like Giacometti wanted to do, with only a few strokes. I attempted to recreate this minimalistic style with paint on the canvas. This was and is an extremely difficult thing for me to understand because I have mostly painted from life. Through this experience, though I am still learning, I have discovered that drawing and painting can have a very literal connection as the paintbrush can act like a pencil. I learned that through studying my drawings, each mark on the paper can represent a not only a value, dark or light, but also a color, warm or cold. The colors that I have chosen to use were inspired by the variety of marks in my drawings. I hope to continue to bring more elements of drawing into my painting and continue to learn about the importance of drawing. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to share with everyone how the collection at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence, France has influenced my work.