Friday, June 24, 2011

The Ever changing Persephone

I showed a sketch of my "Persephone's Folly" on my Facebook fan page a couple of days ago. I started painting on her yesterday, and noticed she changed a lot. That often happens when I start painting on them, their faces change and morph on me. I was a little sad at first because there was something in the face of the sketch that I really liked. But now I am realizing there is no way to control Persephone, she is a force that can never be defined or fully understood.
Sketch with some background color added:


Beginnings of skin tone added, she changed already:


Where she is now:



Luckily I don't have to write a novel here telling you all about Persephone. We all know her story, and yet none of us really knows if she ate all those pomegrante seeds on purpose or if she was a victim (I don't think she was a victim).
One thing I am trying to bring through in this painting is the tree of life. In a lot of old paintings a snake is wrapped around a tree to signify it as the tree of life. I have a snake wrapped around Persephone and vegetation in her hair along with the look of her hair to hint to her being the tree. She represents the Underworld, the subconscious, the tree of life that connects to both the Underworld and the Upperworld.
She is also holding the fruit like a tree bearing fruit. I am also paying homage to one of my favorite painters and my favorite Persephone painting. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Proserpine":

6 comments:

Unknown said...

youre so very right, the sketch, then the transformation on canvas can be a sad but beautiful journey
i think this is a gorgeous painting however, and the expression on her face is perfect in my opinion
i am really looking forward to seeing her come to life even further! ^^

MoonSpiral said...

Thankyou Plantie_bee, I appreciate that! Yes, sad and beautiful is a good way to describe it!

Anonymous said...

This is really beautiful!!!

Virtual Boy said...

Love WIP images, seeing the art evolve into it's final form...
Looks incredible so far, looking forward to seeing it finished!

Tammie Lee said...

gorgeous to see the stages of your beautiful and deep goddess. I think her face is wonderful in both sketch and painting.

Victoria said...

Wow..fabulous!! She is outstanding! Shine on kindred!
Victoria

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