We Need Hands!

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Rhys Meirion'

(Detail)

Oil Painting on Panel

This detail (from a portrait of a great Welsh tenor, Rhys Meirion) came to my mind yesterday as I was thinking about the painting of hands.

(The photo above was taken before the picture was finished so the hands still look fairly unfinished).

Here's the finished painting.....

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Rhys Meirion'

Oil Painting on Panel

Click here for comments by other artists on this work, or to order cards/prints.

Whenever I do life drawings, even if there is only a short time available to do the drawing, I try not to avoid the 'fiddly' parts of the human body (the hands, feet, and face).  Both these drawings below were 'fifteen-minute drawings' so there was no great amount of time to get fantastic detail in (given that conveying the main mass and character of the body as a whole is usually the primary aim of a life drawing), but hopefully they give an indication of what the hands are like.

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

But now for some of the best examples around..............

Here are the hands belonging to the groom and bride in the 'Jewish Bride' by Rembrandt. He not only conveys all the 'realistic' or physical qualities (form, lighting, texture, etc) but manages to convey a delicacy and sensitivity of touch, without any sentimentality, which is possibly the tenderest expression of love seen in painting.

These are the 'Praying Hands' by Albrecht Dürer 

It's been said that Leonardo left the hands of the Mona Lisa unfinished, and of course that may be the case. But they are, nevertheless, exquisitely realised, and must be the most famous pair of hands in the history of painting. Unless of course........

........that accolade goes to Michelangelo's painting of the hands of Adam and God. 

Of course, choosing the 'best' painting of hands is a difficult if not fruitless task, but it's interesting that possibly the oldest depictions of human beings come in the form of hand paintings. Or more accurately, hand stencils. 

This wall painting below is an example from Argentina, and was found in the Rio Pinturas Canyon, Patagonia. The hand images were probably made by placing a hand on the wall to act as a stencil, and blowing paint at it using some kind of tube, (a hollowed-out bone, or plant stem) or even, as some historians have guessed, simply by putting the paint in the mouth and blowing it out.

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

Spooky! Who painted these figures, and in which work?

(The answer will be in the next posting.)

And here's the answer from the last posting -

'The Birth of Venus'  

by Alexandre Cabanel, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, 1863

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

  

"We are rapidly approaching the point where everything is art and, therefore, nothing is art." 

Margo Buccini

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