Copying Old Masters

My teachers used to say: "Copy Old School masters and you will learn how to paint better". I agree. When we look at the old paintings and try to copy we go inch by inch and transform the artist's knowledge from what you see into what you think and how you think it was made.

When I lived in Russia I always saw art students painting fragments of the famous paintings in the museums. And last time in Paris, I saw a couple of artists painting a relatively huge canvases in Louvre. It must be hard to paint when thousands of people watching you during the day! I prefer good quality photos (though I wouldn't mind to go to Paris again :)

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The piece you see above is my try. The challenge was that I had to transform oil painting (a fragment) into a watercolor "reading".. I loved to paint grapes on this one and small bugs too..

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8"x9" Watercolor on 140 lb Cold Pressed Arches