The goddess within...Wednesday, May 20

Must be because I just got home from a Brockville Women's Business luncheon...about 60 sharp gals who run their own businesses. When I got home I started thinking about a focus for tomorrow. Sometimes I go on Pinterest to see what twigs me, and there I found Renoir's bathing women:

Now, these were gals who didn't mind a little flesh roll here and there! And obviously didn't have to worry about the UV index!

So, maybe the idea of painting nude women bathing is a little passé (and given the mosquito population around here, I totally get it), but celebrating the goddess within never goes out of fashion - and the bathing goddess - always good!

I have studied, painted and drawn the nude (male and female) since I was a teenager - a right of passage as a serious artist.  Then, a few years ago, I purchased a wonderful book called Paint Happy, by Cristina Acosta. Her playful, fearless approach to creating a painting has informed my process since then. So below, two of my nudes (watercolour and ink) done from life, and my goddess painting, after Cristina.

And for those students for whom the bathing female nude goddess is not a happening thing, how about the bathing nude animal? Like this charming otter (or your dog? a hippo? a cat? well, maybe not a cat....

Otter diptych, Cristina Acosta

Hope you can make it!
Cheers, Mary