Tuesday 31 May 2016

Ophelia Project: PAOS

I am not hosting my own individual PAOS (Peterborough Artist's Open Studios) exhibition this year, but am joining 30 other artists as part of the Art in the Heart Gallery's Summer Exhibition show 'Ophelia : Pure Inspiration'.
I took my inspiration from a quote from J. Millais, whose painting 'Ophelia' we are basing our works on.  Millais wrote to Thomas Combe in March 1852: 'Today I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for "Ophelia". You may imagine it is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds' (J.G. Millais I, p.162).
So, with the image of 'a really splendid lady's ancient dress' in mind I set to work in January of this year to create a life sized 'splendid dress'; not dirty in the least, but strewn with many of the blossoms from Shakespeare's account of his doomed heroine's flowery demise. Only after finishing it did I realise there was not even a hint of the tragic about my 'dress', it's just a creation typifying what I always strive for: beauty, intense attention to detail and the enjoyment of stretching my technical skills to achieve something completely new. I hope you enjoy the exhibition!

Another section of the life sized piece…...

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