Life is a Great Big Canvas

There have been many theories as to the identity of Mona Lisa, the portrait painted by Leonardo Davinci. Some think it is a feminized self portrait. Some say it's DaVinci's lover. I found an article in The Artist's Magazine that makes a very good case for the identity of LaGioconda. The article is called Who's That Girl? written by Katherine Mesch, in the June 2005 issue of the magazine. I read this many years ago and thought it was very interesting. I recently rediscovered the article and thought I would share it. In this article, the author explains that "after 17 years of research, historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen ...claims that the Mona Lisa is really Isabella of Aragon, the former duchess of Milan." The paintings themselves give clues, as well as documents from that period in history, She goes on to explain: "The woman is wearing heavy mournful garments (Isabella's mother died a year prior to the painting of the portrait--she would have still

I have recently fallen in love with painting marbles. The challenge of getting them perfectly round---not just round but getting these little glass globes to look like they have form. Distorting the image of what is behind its round surface, and making the surface look smooth and shiny. Oh, then there is the reflected light on the ground surface that is fun---the intense light in the center and the colored shadow surrounding it. Prepare to see more of these types of paintings from me. They are intense. Each marble can take two hours to paint...so you can imagine how many hours any of these took! Check out more of my work at www.dancingelephantart.com  or go straight to my Etsy store,  https://www.etsy.com/shop/AmyVanGaasbeckArtist  .