The Naturalist Fine Art

“Start with the bale eye,” he says in my head. Sometimes the art gods talk to me. After a long silence of many days or maybe months, I now hear Rembrandt, guiding my hand as I study each fleck and drizzle of his black chalk drawing of this powerfully riveting creature, the lion. “That’s where I started. Do that one, and the next, and then the nose. These three points are the first to establish.”

The recent sale of Rembrandt’s lion mini for $17.9 million has inspired me to make a copy of my own as a study in small scale, using the same black chalk as he did, and on the same 4.5″x6″ size paper, like a large index card. I happen to love working with black and white chalks, so the opportunity to study Rembrandt in this way, following a master just as the art object was made, really appealed to me. I’ve never taken to a mini size piece with any seriousness, so the price tag on Rembrandt’s index card impressed me quite a bit.

Not a lot of minis get the hype Rembrandt’s just caused, which is why I was initially dubious about being serious with such a small piece, i.e., would it be a waste of artistic energy to zone in to the tiniest of brushstrokes on the tiniest of papers? Would anyone care about this piece once I’d gotten done- including me? Then only hours after having these thoughts, the answer arrived on the front of the Wall Street Journal: A Tiny Rembrandt Drawing Sells for $17.9 Million.

“Yes, Jenn. People will care. Now do your work.” Rembrandt assigns me homework to do some serious miniatures. I feel encouraged to continue with my bluebonnets.

And so on, we paint together, he&i, the spirit words of Rembrandt sounding fresh in my mind’s ear.