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Dryad Song

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Description

While I was camping with Laurie and Becky this weekened, and Becky was frolicking in the woods as Becky is wont to do, it suddenly dawned on me that I'd never really seriously painted her. I did a more caricatured digital painting of her back in Florida, which you will find if you look through my gallery, but I have 3 or 4 actual paintings of Laurie and none (until now) of Becky. And that could not stand. I've always thought Becky would be an exquisite subject for a painting. So, after the camping trip was over, Becky and I went out into the woods near her house, and I took some reference photos of her, one of which became this painting.

In painting this one, I was influenced by work that was much older than the modern paintings by Bacon and Hopper which I usually cite as influences; Becky's is a beauty reminiscent of classical portraiture. Of particular influence was a painting titled Beata Beatrix by the prominent Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When I was in art history back in Florida, one of our assignments was to go to a Pre-Raphaelite show at the Ringling Art Gallery (which contains mostly Renaissance-era work) and write about one work of art there. I was instantly drawn to Beata Beatrix; it is perhaps the most radiant beautiful portrait of a woman I have ever seen. Usually I am difficult to move with simple portraits, but that painting struck a chord with me. There was something about that painting-- its celestial splendor, I imagine-- that I wanted to recapture in this work. And luckily, I believe I have succeeded in what I wanted to accomplish.
Image size
800x1222px 323.1 KB
Make
EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Model
KODAK Z730 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA
Shutter Speed
1/23 second
Aperture
F/4.0
Focal Length
7 mm
ISO Speed
140
Date Taken
Sep 2, 2008, 1:17:44 PM
© 2008 - 2024 CheVD
Comments1
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RebeccaTripp's avatar
Hehehe. It's me.