It's one way...

If a regular reader of my blog you will know that our family invests time together each Christmas and Thanksgiving by sitting down together and doing a puzzle.  Last year it was 'Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I' (which you may know as the 'Woman In Gold'), and this year I chose the puzzle.  I was roundly cursed for my choice of Auguste Renoir's 'Dance at the Moulin De La Galette'.  It had issues I admit.  The puzzle pieces were quite small combined with the impressionist style of painting made it quite difficult to put together.  Yes, I would say that is an understatement.  Each piece consisted of little dashes of color and hardly any context.   I am still convinced it is one of the best ways to study a painting.  You spend hours on segments that you would only get to enjoy for a few moments if you were standing in front of the original.  Well, standing in front of the original and moving around people who are moving around people trying to get a closer look.  I admit I spent the last three hours in solitary contemplation to finish it.  There were seven pieces missing when I finally gave up.  Luckily, six pieces were found on the oriental carpet the following morning.  Yes...just like last year...a piece was missing.  There is no dog to blame this year.  As an aside, I have added an entry to my art documentaries page today.  It just so happens that the documentary included this painting - how fortuitous!  Back to my brushes.

"Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens."  - Douglas Jerrold

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