The beautiful Sylvette David is the iconic French woman who posed for over 40 Picasso works while simultaneously inspiring the fashion world with her classic French ponytail. I became absolutely obsessed with her when I visited The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. Here I stumbled upon three Picasso paintings, one being “Portrait of Sylvette.” The sharp, monochromatic lines fascinated me. I decided I needed to paint it in order to understand it better.

Until this point, I had never premeditated any of my work. I was forced to push my boundaries and explore new techniques. I started out with a simple sketch on an unprimed 8X10 canvas.

At the time, I was writing a one page critique for a school assignment. Monochromatic. Sharp, geometric lines. That’s all I could articulate before painting it myself.

“As the inspiration for some of Picasso’s most famous paintings, Lydia Corbett’s was the face that launched a thousand French ponytails.” –Loutte Harding, DailyMail

I quickly realized the sharp, “simple” lines Picasso so often used, are not simple at all. Picasso’s brush strokes appear effortless; there is hardly any break found in his outlines. Like he just dipped his brush in paint and daintily created lines with one fluid motion. I, however, spent several hours working on those lines.

I found this experience to be one of the most artistically rewarding processes I had ever endured. It was totally against my Pollock philosophy of painting without thinking. Yet I enjoyed it more than anything I had ever done. Thus began my Picasso obsession, and my stage of Sylvette.

Sylvette #2 : Portrait of Sylvette David

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

Abstractly,

Alyssa.