Recreating The Great Beach: June Entering

Personal Experience

In order to gain greater insight into the process of creating paintings through a focus on layering, I tried to make a detailed copy of a selected section of Gelb's painting "The Great Beach: June Entering."

One struggle I came across was ambiguity surrounding the sequencing of the lattice of shapes. There was a lot of thought put into simply deciding which layer to paint first, as it would provide the basis for the next part of the painting. I knew that without putting much thought into the layering, I would have the outcome of a copy that did not resemble the original selected section.

Another difficulty I encountered was a complex process of color matching. My intention going into the color matching was to encapsulate light the same way Gelb did. Gelb's way of capturing light allowed for those viewing her work to feel transported to the dunes of Provincetown where she painted.

Overall, the process was quite interesting, and the most salient thing that I got out of it was how much printmaking and painting are interconnected; they are both done in layers.