Exploring Drawing Techniques and Drawing Materials: From the Ice Age to the present.
Francoise Gilot was Picasso's 5th partner. Francoise was a fine artist in her own right and a strong individual and French intellectual. Francoise left Picasso in 1953 taking her young children with her, the first woman to leave Picasso and forge a new life and career on her own, cutting nearly all ties to him. This image I have re-interpreted was loosely based on a series of lithographs in black and white by Picasso of Francoise in the Polish Coat. Picasso had brought Francoise a gift of an embroidered Polish Coat from his visit to The Peace Conference in Warsaw in 1948 after WW11. The original coat has been greatly re-imagined by Picasso throughout the series. I have tried to catch the mood of the originals in my drawing, but have added doves on the sleeves of the coat - Picasso's graphic emblem for peace.
Dedicated to Francoise Gilot who passed away in 2023.
