Copying the MastersNancy Lucas Williamsnlw.fhs@verizon.net

While traveling recently on the Eastern seaboard I stopped in the National Gallery to visit some of my favorite paintings. Going to the National Gallery is always like going home for me. I encounter again the familiar paintings that have graced the inner chambers of my mind for these many long years. When I am away from them, their images burn within me, and beckon me back with their timeless beauty.

On my recent visit, I also came across one of the favored few, an artist copying from the masters. The copy artists are those who paint in the presence of original master works, breathing their rarified air, the lofty air of artists long past. The great Master artists who have labored long and unseen with their illusive muses, capturing them on canvas, and then somehow, miraculously, those canvases have ended up in the public eye for you and I to enjoy and learn from.

Perhaps you have thought the copiers beneath you. Why would someone supposedly lay waste their artistic powers copying something that was already said and done? Aside from monetary gain, there is much that can be learned as an artist by copying another artist’s Master work. Composition, chiaroscuro, brush strokes, modeling and mixing of color, to name a few. Like great dancers, musicians, or sports figures, our discipline is kinesthetic and hands on, learned through practicing the way of those who have already mastered the craft. An artist must acquire basic skills from competent teachers to become proficient enough to express the unique calling of her own artistic muses.

The Master painters who have gone before us can be our teachers. The artist in my recent photo from the National Gallery is copying from a painting by Mary Cassat. To find out more information about the copyist program at the national gallery visit the following web site: http://www.nga.gov/education/volunteer.shtm#copyist