I watch a lot of foreign films. Last night it was one about Camille Claudel, a great sculptor and Rodin's one-time mistress. This was aired on the Bravo channel.

The night before I watched a movie about Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), the first female to be acknowledged as an artist in her own right, and the first woman in history to receive commissions for her work. Her father was an artist and taught her how to paint. The image above is one of her works. I love the Baroque style where the images seem to appear out of the darkness illuminated by candles or unseen sources of light. It is so dramatic. Artemisia suffered much ridicule and harassment because of her gender. Women were not supposed to aspire to be artists in her day, yet she had a talent that refused to be contained by social mores and conventions.

After watching the movie, I learned all that I could by reading about her, and found every image of her paintings that I could both on the internet and my art books here at home. She has inspired me.