Mary Cassatt is one of my all time favorite artists, both in style and subject matter.  Since I recently posted my pen and ink rendition of “The Bath” I had to flip through some of my other drawings and see if I had anything else I could post for her birthday.

This is a painting she did called “Sarah in a Green Bonnet” and I have always loved it.  I did not paint this-I just took a pic. of it from my book Mary Cassatt: Paintings and Prints by Frank Getlein.

When I got this book a few years ago, I was flipping through it and saw this painting.  I thought how cute it would be to have my own daughters face in a big, fancy bonnet like that! S. was about two and a half at the time, and not very keen on sitting still.  So I took the easy road.  I enlarged a picture of S.’s face to fit the opening of the bonnet  and then tried to draw it. This was very difficult for me!  Faces are not my specialty.

During this time, a sweet friend of mine from Germany even gave me a great tutorial book called “How to Draw Faces” and I gave it my best shot. I worked continuously on it until I could show it to someone and they could identify who it was.  Then I decided it was done. I’ve said for years that I’m going to color it, but I never do so this is probably the way it will stay. I know this is far from “good” but it really does look like her at that age and it’s precious to me. Trying to draw a child gives you a whole new perspective on Mary Cassatt’s talent.  And seeing her art on the Google search page gives me a thrill!