Time adds pain to observation,
beauty does the math,
I saw you with your hair on fire,
floating in the bath.
Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40", unfinished.
Me in the bathtub, layer 1. Bottecelli's Venus as inspiration for the hair.
Layer 2. You can see the ghost of the word 'floating' at the top left side of the canvas.
Adding flames to the hair. This is going to take a while.
A bit more work done. Still a long way from finished.
Close up. Getting there.
Added some pink to the skin.
Darker pink. Some dark grey. I still have to do the top half of the painting. The text will be last.
Did the text, another layer of lighter pink, and the inside top of the tub. I'm happy with it now.
I'll probably do a bit more before I say it's finished. I have two good ideas for the next two paintings. I can't wait to start them. One of them involves me, dressed as the Venus de Milo, with my arms painted black. The other one is the devil, my favourite metaphor.
Changed the colour of the text, added a few more details, the blue area behind my head isn't finished yet. Added little flickers of flame. Getting there.
Decided the background needed more detail. It's not finished yet. Also, the text needs a little something.
One more layer. Added little white dots to the lettering, but I'm not sure that's enough.
Outlined the lettering in black. Did some more on the blue area. I've attached the tag to the back of the painting with the text, and signed it, so it's either finished, or very close to it.
Bottecelli's Venus.
Original photograph. Set the camera, get in the bathtub, pose, get out of the bathtub, set camera, get back into the bathtub...repeat 30 times. Do it again the next day with water in the tub. Discard all of those ones.