The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes

March Book Club

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The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes

I know there is a word for the act of making art about another piece of art.

Using German building blocks of language would make it something like art-translate-more-art. Kunstubersetzen…mehrkunst?? No. Maybe it’s an Italian word, something elegant that means infinite art or revolving art. I have it written down somewhere, and when I find it, it will be useful to have to talk about Emily Howes’ The Painter’s Daughters.

I claim to love novels about painters, but what I probably mean is I like the very good ones, like this. Painting is a subject that interests me greatly because it is mysterious to me. I’m poor-to-mediocre at it, and other people are sublime. This isn’t anything interesting about me; we’re all drawn to stories of greatness. I think the idea is that we’ll find them (the stories) inspiring, but I think what I often take away from them is a sense of perspective; the reason that those geniuses were geniuses, is that they were geniuses! I do not have a natural talent for painting, and that’s ok. I even still enjoy it. But what I’d enjoy even more than painting is watching a Master painting. Reading will have to do. Watching Bob Ross is great, but imagine watching Thomas Gainsborough paint this white lace.

If only Gainsborough had to film his process for online content. POV: You’re prepping a canvas! GRWM for a day of portrait painting! Watch me transform this painting with 57 hours of clever tricks! I’m sure there are contemporary painters who post this sort of stuff - please don’t send me links, I’ll never get up.