Collective painting

This painting, made up of 18 individual panels, altogether about 1,5 by 2 mtrs, was made by the members of my saturday painting group about 2 years ago. Today we heard someone wants to buy it and we tried to decide what price it was worth - at least a nice meal out for us all. We grew fond of it again at the thought of it departing. The original is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (which reopened yesterday after a long renovation), and painted around 1665, by Jan Davidsz Heemst and called "Festoen" ("feast"). It's a lot smaller -and better- than our version. Here you can see the original.

We were all painting from from a postcard-sized copy of a piece of the painting. The aim was for everyone to paint it in their own individual style. My piece is in the higher middle part, with the fly on the peach. Astonishingly, without consulting my fellow painters on the left and right, our branches and grapes met one another perfectly. It was great fun, and if we do sell it, we'll be so homesick for it, we'll probably do another collective project.