Archaic Smile

Archaic Smile

Oil on Linen Panel, 16x20"

www.davida-art.com

lifeartist-davidablog.blogspot.com

This is the fourth time I have painted from this model. It is the first time I have come close to a likeness in any way. And still anyone who knows her would furrow a brow and shake a head with a decided "No." Each person is a challenge to my observational powers but I have really struggled with her. She has this uncanny ability to hold a smile while she is modeling. I don't know if that's part of the challenge, or if I should just ask her to relax her face, or her features just too difficult to discern well.

The dark cloth to the right was a piece of black velvet. It absorbs light nearly completely so I invented the tracery of branches and leaves to help bring it a sense volume and to carry the green from the left side across the painting. The green is also a foil against which the red tones of the figure and her lingerie can contrast. It make the reds seem more intense. The blue cloth under her right arm serves a similar function against the orange-y tones of the fainting couch and the warm tones of her skin.

That smile she holds is just like the archaic smile of sculpture from pre-classical Greece. Every figure, whether it is of a dying warrior or a maiden holding a pomegranate, has this stylized smile. No one knows exactly what it means. I have read that it may mean the person is in optimum health or is in a state well being. I don't know how that applies to a dying warrior. It could also mean that the person depicted is in a state of grace, at one with the world, or experiencing a total acceptance of one's condition. 

I am going to put on my archaic smile and admit that this is as good as it's going to get and move on from here. Having gotten the likeness I did makes me happy enough and those of you who have not met her will find it quite believable.