Aqueduct No. 1
12x24 Oil
Recently I discovered an artist I really like, Deladier Almeida. He's originally from Brazil but has lived in the Sacramento delta area of California for a long time. He's well known for his figure and portrait work but has been exploring aerial perspective paintings of the delta and farmland areas of that part of the state. I fell in love with these wonderful paintings and wanted to learn his style - so much like the artists of long ago, I decided to try my hand at one of his compositions - and the painting above is my interpretation. I'm very happy with it.
Frequently in my years of painting I've copied the works of artist's I admire and have found that I learn a lot. Sometimes that the particular style is way to complicated and not what I want to pursue - sometimes with wonderful results which lead me to explore an exciting new avenue of art. In this case I found that the loose, open but controlled way of painting was just up my alley. I've been interested in aerial perspective drawing and painting for a very long time as well as the patch-work quilt quality of farmland - when I saw his paintings that included both subjects I was blown away.
Now that I've completed this one and enjoyed it so much I intend to paint more using my own drawings - I've been drawing like a woman possessed. When you do copy another artists work it's best to do it in a different size (in this case mine is smaller) and you can never sell it or put it into a show as your own work. These practice paintings go into my personal collection and are strictly learning tools.
Mr. Almeida has a show coming up next week at the Knowlton Gallery in Lodi, CA - "The Geometry of Occupation," featuring his aerial perspective paintings - you can check it out by clicking on the gallery name above. They've also posted a short video which is very interesting - shows him painting which helped me a lot. Wish I was made of money - I'd buy the original. :D
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