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Women in the Picture

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Catherine McCormack’s Women in the Picture profoundly reframes how we perceive women in art. From Venus to the Monstrous Woman, McCormack uncovers persistent archetypes that structure our visual culture, revealing how seemingly timeless masterpieces actually participate in shaping desire, power, and representation.

As an art historian and practicing artist, this book resonated deeply with me and inspired my series The Gaze Reclaimed, which celebrates women artists who reclaimed visibility for themselves and their subjects.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction – Changing the way we see
00:12 Why Women in the Picture struck me deeply
00:33 How representation shapes perception
00:48 The roots of The Gaze Reclaimed series
01:13 Building Brushstrokes of Being Studio
02:05 Catherine McCormack’s contribution to art history and feminist critique
03:12 The four archetypes – Venus, Mother, Maidens & Dead Damsels, and Monstrous Women
04:28 Archetypes from the Renaissance to the digital age
05:17 The illusion of liberation in contemporary culture
06:02 Rethinking Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring
07:25 The myth of perfection and the camera obscura
08:42 The female gaze and the reenactment of desire
09:33 Why McCormack’s writing matters today
10:14 “Images are never innocent” – the politics of representation
11:08 Seeing differently: art as transformation

I also share updates on Brushstrokes of Being Studio, where mini-courses on colour theory are currently available. Explore them today or join the waiting list for the full launch this November.

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