Monday, May 27, 2013

Letting the paint dry

I remember reading that Cezanne was a slow painter who considered each brush stroke before he made it. However, he could not compete with Antonio Lopez, the Spanish hyper realistic painter.

Eighteen years ago, Lopez was given the commission to paint King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia along with their three children and was paid 43 million pesetas for the work. Since then, the artist says that he has struggled to find a composition that he is happy with and has repainted the 11ft by 10 ft canvas several times.

In the meantime, the King and Queen have aged, the children have grown up, married and even, in the case of Elena, divorced. There are also eight grandchildren in the family.

Lopez was told to finish the work in time for the King’s birthday in January but failed to meet the deadline. Now, he has been given until the end of the year and has been moved into the royal palace to avoid distractions.

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