This is a very recent work, it is oil on canvas and painted approximately life size. This is the third in a series of dressed up, courtly self portraits. This one has more of the flair of the jester to it. It is also kind of a blend of the carnival and vanitas themes.
Detail of Self Portrait
"Girl in Blue"This was one of the first paintings that I did in the blue theme. I think a lot of it had to do with my change of studio and location in 2010. With the new studio I had to choose a new wall color, so I went for a blue/gray. Consequently a lot of my paintings ended up having blue backgrounds. With the change of location I also began the exciting task of finding all new studio props, which was a lot of fun. I gravitated to Baroque, Victorian, and just a lot of old world things. Part of this was idealistic on my part, I just like the way those things looked. More of it was due to the fact that many of the painters I admire came from those periods, and through my travels and 5 years of studying in Europe I came to accumulate a lot of ideas about this in my mind. All this time in the studio I feel like I have been revisiting them and trying to incorporate them into my work.
"Girl in Blue"First painting with the powdered Rococco wig.
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the cap and bells
ReplyDeletethe jester walked in the garden:
the garden had fallen still;
he bade his soul rise upward
and stand on her window-sill.
it rose in a straight blue garment,
when owls began to call:
it had grown wise-tongued by thinking
of a quiet and light footfall;
but the young queen would not listen;
she rose in her pale night-gown;
she drew in the heavy casement
and pushed the latches down.
he bade his heart go to her,
when the owls called out no more;
in a red and quivering garment
it sang to her through the door.
it had grown sweet-tongued by dreaming
of a flutter of flower-like hair;
but she took up her fan from the table
and waved it off on the air.
'i have cap and bells,' he pondered,
'i will send them to her and die';
and when the morning whitened
he left them where she went by.
she laid them upon her bosom,
under a cloud of her hair,
and her red lips sang them a love-song
till stars grew out of the air.
she opened her door and her window,
and the heart and the soul came through,
to her right hand came the red one,
to her left hand came the blue.
they set up a noise like crickets,
a chattering wise and sweet,
and her hair was a folded flower
and the quiet of love in her feet.
yeats