L'AVIATRICE /etude/

This is just that rare case when I remember exactly where and when I came up with the picture. The plane took off beyond the clouds, the sunlight was too bright, and I closed my eyes. I saw this plot and character so accurately that I remember how in my thoughts I turned the aviator’s right hand, deciding that such a gesture would be more suitable. I made a fist drawing in my sketchbook on my return to Prague. Then I painted this etude. This was the beginning of my favourite theme: a woman pilot, a woman and the sky. Here, as in many of my paintings, the influence of the style of the 30s is noticeable: a clear line, local color relationships, even the character and clothes of the model remind that time. The painting was done in noble grey tones with warm shades of ocher.

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