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Title: Man’s Reach Exceeds His Grasp
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Date: 2012-04-11
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Category: Projects
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Summary: My first attempt at painting with acrylic.
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The painting is called “Man’s Reach Exceeds His Grasp”. I've always wanted to
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try painting and thought I had a good idea, so after a couple of drawings I
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attempted to paint it. I eventually got it framed at Michaels. Many thanks to my
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friend Laura for the opportunity to do this, I couldn't have done it without her
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help.
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## The Meaning
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It’s hard to see in the photo, but the moment the water touches his hand it
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turns into sand and is taken by the slight breeze. The title is a quote from
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Andrea del Sarto, a poem by Robert Browning. It is also said by Nikola Tesla’s
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character in my favourite movie, [The Prestige](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/).
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“I, painting from myself and to myself,
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Know what I do, am unmoved by men’s blame
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Or their praise either. Somebody remarks
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Morello's outline there is wrongly traced,
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His hue mistaken; what of that? or else,
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Rightly traced and well ordered; what of that?
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Speak as they please, what does the mountain care?
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Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
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Or what’s a heaven for?”
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– Robert Browning from *Andrea del Sarto*
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## Creation
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I started with the background, trying to make it blurry and out of focus, then
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slowly progressed to the foreground. The hands were drawn in pencil and painted
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in. It was quite difficult to get the blending and shadows perfect, but I had
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Laura to tell me when things didn't look right. Below I am trying to figure out
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what a hand looks like in a mirror.
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