The Little Dancer!

Last friday, I got to go on a trip to Edmonton, to see Degas' Little Dancer at the Alberta Gallery of Art. Or one of them, that is. You must understand, that there are so many copys, and plus there was a quite a few cast from Degas' original wax piece. The one I saw was apparently 75% of the size of the original. But it was still great! It was great to see in person, rather than just in pictures. Pictures are nice, but there are so many details that are missed. The part I liked the most though, was all of his drawings! Oh my lands!!! The way he handles line, tone and highlights is amazing!! My favorite, was a oil painting of a dancer with a blue tutu. The way the sunlight behind her filtered through her tutu *sigh* it was wonderful! I just stood for a while there taking it in. Then I looked around more...and came back to it. Sadly I don't have pictures, because they didn't allow photos to be taken in the gallery spaces *sniff*. But I do have pictures of the new building, which just opened last week. The other piece I really liked was of another dancer, in charcoal and white chalk. The way the light hit her left leg was stunning, for some reason I kept coming back to that leg and foot! You could tell that there were little wrinkles in her tights, and the way the light hit it *ahhh* wonderful!  The titles of those two were either "The Dancer" and 'Ballerina" or "Dancer" and "The Ballerina". I really should have brought my sketch book....drat.