Another day of the Cheifetz workshop, another day of undiscovered challenges. David started a new composition today, which meant all of his students did, too. One of his most popular, albeit relatively new still life twists, is the use of cellophane. Yes, cellophane, that awful plastic wrap that’s supposed to be used to seal open containers, but all it really does is seal itself around your hands as you try frantically to attach it to your leftovers bound for the refrigerator. Well, as if there weren’t enough reasons to demonize cellophane, David had the bright idea at some point last year to try and paint objects wrapped in the stuff. What’s more curious is that many of the students wanted his second composition to be this subject matter. He’d never done a live demo of cellophane wrapping technique, but he happily agreed to do it live!
I had originally planned to do a new composition today that consisted of an orange or apple hanging precariously off an edge to get that 3D depth effect, but opted to embrace the opportunity to try something genuinely impossible like cellophane wrapped objects. What the hell, right? After all, how many times do you get the chance to see a master like David Cheifetz do a really hard composition like this live, then have a couple of days to try imitating the same thing… with him walking around the room and available to give hands-on assistance! I know I won’t get this right, but I will learn a lot trying and one day when I can do it, I will look back at this effort and chuckle. So here’s to laughing at me and my first cellophane wrapped still-life attempt. Here goes nothing…
Art Bern 