Contraltoes

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Contraltoes

Operatic drapery
Acrylic on masonite, 14 x 24 inches (2008)

A mainstay of any life drawing class is working with drapery, folds, lighting, tension points ... q whole lot is going on underneath taht sheet.

Those of us who are not really enlightened about opera (light opera? heavy opera?) should be forgiven for not knowing the ins and outs of the many voices and contre-voices, and such. We, the great unwashed, are heavily influenced by the television and movies images of opera — horse and comic too — and must be excused for reading stereotypes of Rossini and Handel partly through the cultural eyes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Pete Townshend.

A lady wearing loose garments, no matter the triumph and beauty of voice, is probably assumed to be wench. And bare foot? My oh my: a serving wench? And a singing one at that?

OK, I admit that I am not taking this seriously. I see a lovely women in flowing, beautiful folds, high-stepping with bare piggies.


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P.O. Box 659, Winchester, Ontario. K0C 2K0   613-774-5180
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© 2012 Douglas Laing