[Marta Prime]

Jeanine,

I like the underpainting, it will be lovely when you are finished. I look forward to seeing it then.

I don't know if this is going to be another spinoff, but some comments made here have sparked my interest. Is using a pose that has been used by others stealing a composition? It seems to me much of what we do looks similar, but there are times I wonder how far it goes. As an example, my daughter was thumbing through some pictures of paintings that I have and saw one she wanted me to do of her, in a certain pose. It was sitting on a couch, with her long blond hair spreading out over the couch, leaning on her hand, in a white robe. Except for her face, it came out startlingly like the original painting! Now of course, I will never sell or even show this painting, but I have seen others show me a picture of another painting and say they want to be "posed" like this for their painting. Even though the face, background, and even the folds of the material may be different, sometimes just what the person is doing in the pose such as coming down a staircase, or holding someone else's picture, is similar to other paintings. Can a "pose" be copyrighted?