Thursday 13 November 2014

National Portrait Gallery (2/4)

I find myself attracted to hands. So during my visit to the Gallery, that is all I photographed. Hands in a photograph tell us a lot about the subject. Hands in a painting CAN tell us about the subject, but they can also tell us whether the artist truly valued hands.

ABOVE: the hands of Nancy Wake as painted by Melissa Beowulf
Wake (1912-2011) was an Australian journalist who worked in the French Resistance for the English during World War II.

BELOW: the hands of Nancy Bird Walton (1915 - 2009) as painted by Judy Cassab
Bird-Walton was an aviatrix who worked in the rough'n' tumble of outback flying until World War II, when she became involved with training other pilots.
The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra opened in December 2008.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

beautiful

William Kendall said...

Good examples. You'll have me looking at the hands in portraits the next time I'm at our art gallery.

Joe said...

I believe hands are very difficult to paint Julie.

Julie said...

That does not surprise me, Joe. Some I am showing look as though they are painted by caricature.