Shivanni

Shivanni was our model this Tuesday. I think it was her first time as a nude but I could be mistaken. She was a great model with interesting stories of Africa and engineering. I was so happy to paint someone with darker skin. The belly is my favorite part of this quick standing pose. For some reason I struggled with her face. As we drank more wine, I loosened up.

I had her repeat this pose for us. My series of these is growing, it’s going to be fun to collage them together.

This standing pose came about as she was playing with the scarf and asking how we’d like her next. I really loved the simplicity of this one, I really wish I had done it on a larger scale. Since it was a warm up painting it only about 5 inches high and maybe 2 or 3 inches wide. The green scarf really  makes it complete.One day, someone is going to have to teach me how to take good photos, the lighting distorted all my colors and blurs the details in her face, which I took great care with.  In person this may be the most beautiful painting I’ve done so far. There is a lot of dead space around the edges but this painting might be the perfect ground for one of my collages.