#5 – Everybody’s darling
March 2015
Acrylic on canvas (1m x 1m)
I chose this title a little bit “tongue in cheek”. For a long time, this has been the favourite painting of the visitors to my house, friends and relatives commenting on the bright red flowers, the composition and the sense of light from above.
I painted the organic shapes using a lot of drippings with water, spraying and using sponges and fingers, turning the painting upside down a couple of times, once for the white at the top right-hand corner, then for the two main green plants.
It was the first time that I used stencils for the butterflies. Some of these ended up covered by the drippings and others are still peeking through the later layers.
The red poppy-like flowers came last as I felt that the painting was missing something essential.
Poppies were childhood companions on my bike rides through the French countryside near my grandfather’s house, striking red against the ripe wheat fields in July. I am so happy about the way they turned out in this painting.
“Klimt-like”
Someone noticed a couple of weeks ago that this painting had something “Klimt-like”. It had not occurred to me until that person commented on it. And I am grateful she did as it made me so conscious of my life-long admiration for this painter.
I was attracted to Klimt’s paintings from a young age, first by the striking golden hues (in The Kiss, The Tree of Life, Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer), the beautiful dream-like ladies with large-brimmed hats, sumptuous coats and draping clothes.
I was a bit shocked as a young girl by the raw nakedness of the older lady in The Three Ages of Woman, having not really looked at a naked woman over 60 before.
I’ve been fascinated by the intertwined bodies and eerie atmosphere (The Virgin, The Bride) and the sense of peace or suspended time (in Danae, The Kiss, Fulfilment) coming out of his wonderful works.
Thank you, Gustav Klimt, for your wonderful art.
*** This painting is one of the first ones that I sold in 2016, alongside two other flower-inspired paintings Requiem pour une fleur and Sandra & Charlotte, to a private collector in the United Kingdom ***
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