Plus it gets me to look a lot more closely at things I might otherwise not notice at all.
And noticing always makes the world a richer place.
A friend of mine recently purchased a very old copy of The Courtships of Miles Standish by Longfellow. A painting graced the front cover in which the young Mr. Standish and the young lady he presumably courted sat visiting, neither of them looking too happy.
It cracked us all up.
So I sketched it.
What I most liked about the original and did manage to capture was the placement of the two candlesticks. I'm not sure why they intrigued me so. Her placement by the hearth, with the home-making tools (the wheel) and the symbol of faith (the book in her lap which I suppose was the Bible) also stand out. The interesting extension of the arms, resting on furniture, but somehow reaching toward each other. The shared color of his shirt and her dress. And of course, their very grim expressions!
The half hour I spent looking at an old piece of art which I otherwise would have dismissed with barely a glance brought us all a lot of fun.
(I could find no identification of the original artist in the book.)
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