The Essential "Beauty Rose"...

 

Beauty  

(16x20", Oils on Canvas, Framed)  Price: $1200.00

 (Not completely sure why this image is so washed out. It certainly isn't the case in photoshop on my computer)

This is one of the major pieces I managed to produce for Illuxcon in 2018 after my broken arm had finally healed enough to paint. Luckily, I had the design drawing for it already completed before the before snapping my painting wing. The reference for this work came from our Costume Salon and Sketchlab sessions at Illuxcon from the year before. I'd taken something like 1400 photos from various sessions during that year's salon and this was one of them. I'll take many multiples of photos from a multitude of lighting and shooting angle, and this singular snap inspired me to create a painting using the 'keyhole' effect framing the model's face as the center of interest for the painting. I also chose to use a close cropping affect for the composition to experiment with 'viewer intimacy'...ie. bringing the viewer further into the painting as if seeing the subjective Beauty in a passing moment of self-reflection that we rarely see in real life portraits. So, I brought a moment of 'real-life' into a painting. Hence the lack of 'formal portrait composition'. This photo, like most any photograph of a painting does not do the richness of the paint any justice at all. Nuances have been lost and depth of perception of the painting severely curtailed. In the right lighting, my Beauty GLOWS. The hands almost seem 3D and I am so proud of that achievement, since it has been many years since I have painted human hands so well. That in of itself proves to myself that I have not totally lost all portrait or figurative painting talent in the decades of not painting people. And I have to admit that 'Beauty and the Beast' is literally my favourite fairy tale and this photo session made me a bit giddy to finally have inspirational fodder to attempt to paint a version of 'Beauty'...

This is the original sketch for 'Beauty'. I added the background by my usual smooshing around wet paint into something I liked, giving suggestions of roses in the dim distance of the garden. I also added the roses in the foreground to complement the rose that Beauty is putting in her hair, creating the moment of her having just plucked one from the bush beside her and absent-mindedly tucking it into the top of her veil. It brings to mind the original reason for Beauty being in the Beast's castle and garden in the first place and that the freedom of being able to freely pick roses comes at a price. 

Here are a couple of easel shots taken during the painting process...

 

 

 

Notice the roses and the drapery of the satin sleeve as the painting approaches completion...

I didn't get too adventurous with the palette for this painting, so most of the usual colour suspects were used. I probably added Permanent Rose to the line up along with a tiny bit of Permanent Green Light and Sap Green. As I get further into posting paintings from more recent times, I'll get back to toting up the colours and paintbrushes used for each painting. At the moment, I'm reaching backwards in time several years past. 

Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Marianne