Excerpts about Vermeer

Girl with pearl earring, by Vermeer 16 century, one of the most famous paintings of all time, it's the Mona Liza of Netherland, created during the Dutch of golden age. A period characterized by the flourishing trade and prominence pf royalty, mesmerized by an artistic and cultural richness. 

Genre painting was one of the painting subject matters became common and widespread in the 17 century, painting ordinary people and dressing them, showing their life style and addressing their daily activities and attire. 

What is fascinating about this painting - here I can mention the girl with red hat as well- by Vermeer, the representation of a simple girl with profound emotion, enhanced by the 3/4 turn and direct gaze, a powerful expression to create a compelling narrative.  

The 3D rendering of the face features, and the use of contrast of light and shadow add depth, particularly in her lips, an absolute 3D lips, covered with an aura of softness and luminous. You only can comprehend a sense of emotion and love for simplicity, which is really rare in such rural appearance of a painting like this one, in spite of the fact the girl's head is fully covered with Turkish turban, reflecting her modesty. 

When I studied art history and the old master painting material and techniques, I became obsessed with painting like them, I see people around me in a similar scenes like the old master paintings. so I made a collection of paintings based on them, in term of subject matter, setup, choosing the model, collecting of objects to serve the scene. I even went further when I formed a collection of pigments, binders, brushes in my stationary in addition to collecting books. 

By going back to the reference of Vermeer's painting, I have painted the same iconic pose with modern twist for a real girl with her head covered leaving the interpreting to the viewers. 

I almost used the same colour palette form Vermeer's painting as mentioned in the books that he painted with Ultramarine which is Lapiz Lazuli grinding into powder and there is an evident of using indigo glazing in the background of the girl faded by the time. 

So, I used Lapis in the head cover and some of the indigo and then I added the black background mimicking the current look of Vermeer painting. I used red vermilion for the lips and some of it on the face with lead white and yellow ocher. I tried to capture the same gaze but this time with modern kohl- lined eyes. The final output of this experiment came new, inspired by the girl with earring reminding us that sometime repeating the greatness of the old master paintings is a testament to the enduring allure of timeless artistry.