This week's art class at the Rockport Art Association featured an exercise of copying impressionist master's that we greatly admire. I like these exercises as it puts me directly into the mind set of the artist. I can experience the color choices and value decisions of an accomplished artist.  It also is a way to understand the compositional arrangement that helps make the work of art appealing to the eye. I picked this picture by Anthony Thieme....one of my favorites...to copy.   The painting is very dramatic in terms of its light contrasts and blue/orange complements.  There are lots of angles and geometric shapes that move the eye around the painting.  I was pretty happy with my rendition of Thieme's painting and learned quite a bit from the exercise.