Amanda Skow Fine Art
Formerly Amanda Teicher Fine Art
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The Case for Mastercopies

2/11/2014

 
I just have to say something about master copies, because my husband and I disagree about their value in this world. 
Mr. Teicher: "Mastercopies just don't ring my bell." 
Mrs. Teicher: "Not only do I like them, but I've been urged by various instructors to make them -- make them early and often."
I've reviewed those instructors' words in my mind, and I'll quote them here. 

"You can't do enough master copies," said John Rizzotto, a classically trained artist who is teaching my painting class. "If you do five slammin' master copies of a master's work, you can say you studied with that master." (He was holding a photo of a Rembrandt.)

"Master copies are like intravenous art education," said Gary Faigin, artistic director of Gage Academy of Art, where I attend classes. 

"The practice of copying masterworks has helped train some of the greatest artists who ever lived," wrote Juliette Aristides in her book "Lessons in Classical Drawing."

I have made two finished drawings (and many sketches) from masterworks, one by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and another by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. I realize that my nude looks like a linebacker, but I drew her when I was 42, just a baby. How could I be expected to perfectly execute that perpetual tormenter of artists: proportion. This won't be my last attempt. My desire to copy masterworks has only grown more intense since I started studying art a few years ago. 

Mr. Teicher will just have to put up with it. 
Picture
Mastercopy after Prud'hon, colored pencil on toned paper
Picture
Mastercopy after Chardin, graphite on paper
Picture
Mastercopy after Jacob Collins, pastel on toned paper

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    Amanda Teicher creates oil paintings in the realist tradition, focusing on landscape and still life.

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