When my sisters mother-in-law requested a painting for her salon, I was happy to oblige but hard pressed for time. Somewhat strangely, the best pieces of art can come from short bursts of creative output. I know that in other areas of my life aside from creating art, I do tend to work best with a deadline. Out of a few hours one day, this beauty was born.
I took an old 20 x 40 framed painting and not to disrespect the original artist, but I painted over it to give myself a "fresh" canvas. When you're a crafty artist who is on a deadline, you work with what you have.
In her salon in Bennington, New York, Mary Dunham works on client's hair and nails. She gave me free reign as to what to paint but I knew the piece should reflect the ambience of the space. I was loving a fashion advertisement that I saw in V Magazine that showed a high fashion model sporting a lushly colored Ferragamo head wrap so I wanted to recreate it as a painting.
Once I knew what to paint, I mapped out the proportions of the subject and started to lightly render the shadows on her skin. I decided to keep her skin ghostly alabaster to flow into the backdrop and leave the attention drawn to the gorgeous head wrap; not that her dark, piercing eyes don't work strongly in anchoring the piece as well however the rich colors and fabrics of the head wrap are clearly the stars of this show. The juxtaposition of the varying colors and textures make the dazzling head wrap not only stand out but also engage and enthrall the viewer with a simple composition that feels both traditional and modern.
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