American Dreamer: Connecting to Masters of the Past by C.T. Rasmuss

American Dreamer  C.T. Rasmuss, acrylic (2013-14).

Well this work of art has been well over a year in the making, including huge breaks between sittings; when I started on it, I took off like a shot, as if I were going down the path that all artists dream of.  Not saying that I was wrong, but it's just that I slowed down and had to put it away many times, haha - until I finally tuffed thru & finished it last night!

My idea revolved around Cezanne's 'Mont Sainte-Victoire and Viaduct', painted in (1882-85), "...series of portrayals of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, a veritable monument in the region, which is depicted more than 80 times by Cézanne in oil on canvas, watercolor and sketches."
Link to Article: The Mont Sainte-Victoire by Cezanne

When I was studying Cezanne in depth for the 1st time, I also came across George Braque's remakes of: Cezanne's "mountain" of a muse; Braque painted many variations in midst of developing his cubist style, so I sketched the one I was most drawn to, and later on put my plan into action.

Shown below are the two masterpieces I used as references which I drew sketches from:

Mont Sainte-Victoire and Viaduct  Paul Cezanne, oil (1882-85).

Not including the step in deciding and coming up with the idea/execution, here's step 1:

Step 2 was fusing them together with my style, and here's the preliminary result:

Just a few more sketches I could find, needed for adjustments on perspective:

In the end I hope I've been able to show you what I set out to do, and ultimately that is: how one generation of artists can communicate to the next, and how a contemporary today can still extract rich such beauty from the past, as if it were still alive...I hope!!