Challenge 39 - Coveted Trophy

A quick update ... One of the mails I received in the last challenge had a nice suggestion and I thought I would share it with you. The artist had suggested that each of us while submitting  our  painting could also perhaps write a sentence or two about how we  did the painting. It would be a great learning experience for all of us to view and also read a bit about each other's painting process.

It's completely optional of course... however I have slightly modified (and added an extra field) in the submission form we use while sending our paintings for the challenge. Thank You!

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• Artist:
• Size: 
• Medium & Support:  
• Artist Blog: 
• Artist Website: 
• Painting Process:

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About the composition

This challenge was inspired by very lovely and heartwarming e-mail I received from PADT member from Portugal. It did get me thinking about what can be accomplished with limited photographic equipment and a few hours of access to the computer. Is it possible to create a good composition? I will let all PADT artists comment about it while we explore this new, digitally assembled composition.

It all started a few days ago with a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It wasn’t planned. I planned shopping to the close by area and then realized, it is Wednesday, 7PM and I am 5 min walking distance from the museum. I decided to say ‘Hi’ to the Rubens painting Massacre of Innocents, which is the most famous painting in the whole museum. The late Ken Thomson bought the work at Sotheby’s in London in July 2002 for £49.5 million, at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction and donated it to the museum.
 
This was the highest price paid in £sterling, in US dollars it was the third most expensive painting at $76.7 million. This price has since been surpassed but it still remains the world auction record for any Old Master painting. Needless to say how glad and grateful I am to Mr. Thomson for donating it to the museum so that all of us can enjoy it.

I should mention that I did not have any fancy camera with me. It was just my phone with simple camera on it. One of the gold plated goblets caught my eye and I snapped a photo. The light conditions were less than favorable. This was my first photo reference to start with.

I walked a few rooms further and noticed lovely still life. My apologies to the artist but I am not fan of skulls and dark feelings. However, I liked the rest of the composition. So this was my second reference.

On my way back home, the sky above the city turned blood red and sunset was calling me to take its picture. It is not a fancy picture as you can see, but good enough to serve as a third reference.

Today, I decided to challenge my creativity and see what I can compose for all my PADT artists with intention to share how I did it and what I used to create it so that you can try something similar. The free graphical software I used to assemble the reference pictures in one composition is called GIMP and can be downloaded for free by anyone.

I hope all will enjoy painting this challenge and be inspired  to try your hands and assemble your own compositions in a similar way.

Please send your entries by August 18. The next challenge will be posted on August 19.