Many artists take several days or weeks, sometimes even years, to create a piece. But students who took Language of Observational Painting last semester were given just three hours to create paintings that are now on display in the Copycat Exhibition on campus.
The exhibition opened on Saturday, and will remain open until October 31. Admission is free, and the gallery is open Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is located in Fine Arts 238.
The students in one section of the course were instructed to recreate a Giorgio Morandi still life, using ceramic vases made to look like those in Morandi’s painting. Each of the students created paintings using the vases, all with their own personal point of view included.
According to the art department, the focus of the class is to develop students’ oil painting skills. Erin Walker’s preferred medium of art is drawing, so this painting assignment took her slightly out of her comfort zone.
“My mindset has to be right. You know, I love drawing things that I see,” Walker said. “I like to draw people, just any object I can look at. Just anything because, you know, everything we look at is art.”
Walker, who also sings and plays the saxophone, has always loved art. Her life goal is to have her own art galleries in the Bay Area and Paris.
Nathalie O’Brien’s painting is also being featured in the exhibit. O’Brien has been painting since she was 14, and one of her biggest
inspirations is artist Monica Hernandez. According to O’Brien, the experience of creating the piece in three hours was fun.
“I usually like to do a lot of collaging, and putting things together from magazines and other things that I find around,” O’Brien said. “I do a lot of figurative work myself. And fashion has a lot of influence in my artwork as well, because that was what I was interested in originally.”