Artist's Statement:
In last week's post I described my experience drawing in charcoal and explained how currently I use charcoal almost exclusively to do "studies" in preparation for a painting in oil. As an example, I posted the charcoal study I did for "Fearsome and Fearless."
Circumstances forced me to do the study in just two hours. I worked intensely, even furiously to depict the emotions I was imagining while dealing with the emotions of losing my terrific model. In contrast, I worked on the painting off and on over a span of months. During that time, the emotional state being depicted morphed through several further phases. In the charcoal the woman is clenching her teeth and she is looking obliquely. She is clearly very angry, but she is restraining herself, keeping that emotion in. In the painting, her eyes are looking straightforward, she is engaged with and confronting the lion, even her hair is more animated. She is roaring with fury.
Oil on Linen
26.75 x 38 in
The roar of a lion projects a jittery wave of terror that no mortal wants to mess with. It even brings boisterous insanity to instant attention; to attract a lion’s attention is to put one’s head in a lion’s mouth.
Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs
Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.
Martin Amis contemporary British novelist
Art as an Oasis™
Art as an Oasis is a series of occasional postings from the art of Carrie Kleinberger
providing a temporary respite from both mundane and monumental cares
complimented by words of wisdom from a diversity of others.