inspiration

I started work on my quote today! How exciting. I cracked open the paint and tried out one of the main focuses of the image, the cake stand. I hope to do some of the other elements in different mediums, but I haven't quite worked it out yet. I quite like how this has turned out, especially the sandwiches.

In a few days I'll be doing a bit of self arranged life drawing with one of my friends in order to get some pose studies done for a mural. A family friend has asked me to design a mural incorporating angels for her daughter's bedroom wall, so I'll be putting my friend in a floaty dress and getting her to pose, Burne Jones style! Will update with some of the drawings soon.

Speaking of Burne Jones, I went to a wonderful exhibition the other day at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which was all about Pre-Raphaelite drawings. They had a fantastic collection of pieces from the main brotherhood as well as later members, with some beautiful early work from the days when the founding members attended the Royal Academy. My particular favourites were the Moxon Tennyson they had on display, showing Holman Hunt's The Lady of Shalott, a portrait of Fanny Cornforth by Rossetti, and some of Millais' life drawings. They also had one of the more breathtaking images by William Holman Hunt, The Finding Of The Saviour In The Temple. It was wonderful to see the painting in real life as the colours are truly vivid, particularly the robe that Christ is wearing.

The Finding Of The Saviour In The Temple (1854 - 1865), William Holman Hunt

Fanny Cornforth (1868), Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Seeing these images really inspired me to get back into drawing from life which is why I am particularly excited about my session on Thursday. In the rest of the museum they had a great collection of work by other Pre-Raphaelites, from Ford Madox Brown to Edward Burne Jones. I loved it!