In the Month of Change -- flashback to a favourite blog piece

Marko

Acrylic and charcoal on 

watercolour paper

16 x 23 1/2 inches

Barbara Muir ©

I'm painting full time today. Very inspired by both my model, and the painting by John Singer Sargent that I'm referencing/honouring. It has been a pure pleasure working on this piece. I also have revised a painting from 11 years ago, and it will be going in the A Portrait By Any Other Name show at the Heliconian Club opening April 6. 

The deadline for submitting photos for the show is tonight at midnight, so I am going as fast as I can.  I came upon this post and I really like it.  I'm so sorry Marko left the Don Valley Art Club, and said he was stopping painting. Here's the blog:

"On Tuesday nights when I've been able to for almost 20 years

years I've drawn with an art group from the Don Valley Art

Club.  Many of the people I started with are not

there anymore.  But some are.  And over the years

watching people draw and paint in a short evening with

a model, we've formed strong bonds.  Plus we help one

another be creative.  We don't have to discuss art to learn from

one another.  We just have to observe what other artists

are doing with the very same subject.

The night of this drawing, which is a few years back, our
model didn't show up.  And one of the best artists in the
group -- Marko -- posed for us.  Knowing how amazing his
work was (he drew like he'd been schooled in the
Renaissance) I was a bit intimidated to draw him. 

Sometime after this evening, Marko decided he wasn't going
to do art anymore.  I was devastated.  He was a natural
born incredible artist.  So now I'm glad I have this
drawing.  I consider him to be a friend, though I don't
get to see him anymore.  He was always kind to me, and
I feel I learned a lot from watching him draw.

Have a learning from your friends day."