As well as working on several commissions, I'm in the middle of a personal piece, a largeish oil painting of the Lady of Shalott, from Tennyson' enigmatic poem. The enchanted lady lives in a tower adjacent to Camelot. She is under a curse preventing her from beholding or engaging with the real world. She can only see it in a mirror pointed at the window, and sits weaving the reflected images. However when Sir Lancelot rides by she turns and sees for real, and the curse comes upon her. She goes out and finds a boat, and drifts down the river, but is dead by the time she arrives at Camelot. This poem struck a chord with the Preraphaelites, and other romantic Victorian painters, most notably J. W. Waterhouse, who created at least three different takes on the topic.
On the subject, I've made a new Youtube slideshow featuring some of my melancholy/romantic maidens done over the course of the last decade or so. This can be checked out on my Youtube page.
I just had to tell you again how much I like this painting, she has such a beautiful expression. Great to see the video too, there were some I didn't recall having seen before.
ReplyDeleteThanks, belatedly, the painting turned out ok. And I had a few neglected maidens languishing inside my computer. I thought they might like an airing on youtube.
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