Modern Day Venus

 

Modern Day Venus

I love Sandro Botticelli.  He was an amazing artist.  His romantic and whimsical style is mesmerizing.  I remember the first time I saw a print of “Birth of Venus” I was in awe.  That is one of the reasons I painted a sort of replica of his most famous painting.  In my first painting class we were required to try and replicate a painting that was created before the 1800’s.   Of course I chose Botticelli.  My attempt of a replica is focused on Venus’s face, I tried to make her look like a marble statue, instead of flesh toned like Botticelli’s.

The first, few times I painted I wasn’t thinking of Botticelli, but somehow I ended up making a dream type land.  I hadn’t attempted to make my paintings look like a fantasy, I was just focusing on creating my painting, but the illusion of a utopia came through.  I think it was the influence that Botticelli had on my subconscious that pushed me to the whimsical styling. I think quite possibly that my styling is, influenced by Botticelli.  I often wonder if Botticelli had the bright paints that we have today, if his works would be as bright as mine.  I’m curious about this, because of my bright color pallette being of non-traditional colors.  I know my color pallette is not influenced by Botticelli.  But, my style seems to be.  If you want to know more about Botticelli check out this site, it has a full size picture of “Birth of Venus” too.