I was reluctant to start painting the bracelet. It seemed like a mass of confusing reflections with no clear structure. Below is a photo of it. The structure is easier to see here, because I took the photo from close up. From 4 feet back at my stool, though, it was hard to see.
I took a few trips up close to it to study what the structure was. Though I don’t like to paint what I can’t see from my stool, I do find that it is essential to understand a form to represent it properly, even if that representation is simplified when I finally paint it. Below you can see my first attempt at understanding. The chain consists of a series of parallel bars connected with diagonal cross-pieces in a herringbone pattern. Once I had that idea, it was easier for me to see the pattern from back at my stool. I painted a dark background and indicated this pattern in a light gray.
For the crystal, I very loosely painted in the large areas of darks and lights. I’ll let it be for now, and will return to it as other parts of the painting progress. Now that I have this start, I feel much better about it.
Linda Mann Artist 