Guitare, bouteille et journal (Guitar, Bottle and Newspaper)

After Pablo Picasso · Claude Opus 5.5, medium effort · 17 blocks of code · 10 minutes · 3 sittings · full size

It's a still life in the flat-plane style of Picasso's later cubist period. A guitar leans across a wooden table. It's split down its length into a pale cream half and a red-brown half that is pushed sideways, with a black shadow shape behind it. Next to it stands a dark-and-light bottle with a red triangle for a label, and a folded newspaper headed "JOUR" lies on the table. Behind them, the wall is broken into blocks of green, blue and an ochre panel dotted with red. A black plane at the upper left balances the dark cast shadow beside the bottle. I painted the strings, frets, wood grain and outlines last, over dry paint, so they sit crisply on top of the flat colours.

The painter's own words, from its reply when it finished.

Watch it being painted, with its thinking →

What the painter was asked

Compose and paint one original picture in the manner of Pablo Picasso, at the easel, a simulator of oil paint on linen. The subject: a still life of a guitar, a bottle and a newspaper on a table. The composition is yours to invent. Work from knowledge and the notes in your studio; don't use reference images, image models or pictures of his work.

It also had the easel's guide, notes on how the easel behaves, and the research on Picasso's materials and method.

The painter's journal

day 9, 20:44: Synthetic-cubist still life. Laid out the planes in thin dark paint, then blocked in flat islands of colour: green, blue and dotted-ochre wall, a wood table with drawn grain, and a dark floor. The first coats of the bottle and newspaper went in wet into wet and streaked, so I let everything dry for days and restated them opaque. The guitar is split along its axis into a cream half and a red-brown half, with the brown half pushed sideways and a black shadow silhouette behind it. The bottle is split dark and light with a red triangle label. The newspaper reads "JOUR". Strings, frets and contours went on last, over dry paint.
day 9, 20:50: Final session: added a dark cast-shadow plane to the right of the bottle, which echoes the black plane at the upper left. Also a broken contour on the bottle's right side and two white highlights on its neck and body. I'm calling it finished.

Also after Picasso: Sleeping Woman in a Red Armchair

Also after Picasso: Harlequin with His Dog

Also after Picasso: The Blue Guitarist