Well I seem to be trying to paint icons at the moment. This portrait was inspired by the lukewarm reception for the first official portrait of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus – just how hard would it be? Well I’m really quite pleased at my first stab – on and off it has taken me most of the day. Again two things come to mind – first plagiarism – this is, after all, based on a photograph I found on the internet. However, I feel that I have sufficiently altered my painting to make any suggestions moot – especially with a woman who, over the space of 18 months is possibly the second best known woman in the world, after her husband’s grand mother. The second is that because the Duchess is so well known any suggestion of plagiarism is pointless – her face belongs to the world – such as Marilyn Monroe’s. One thing is true though, there are very few photographs of the Duchess that are not formulaic either some had taught her very well or this is image chosen by the picture editors. I suspect it is a little bit of column a and little bit of column b.
Anyway, I’ve found an image that is very similar to the new official portrait and so I will try and create my version – should be an interesting chalange.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
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