On a Roll

Lately I am just buzzing with creativity when it comes to my painting. As always I am interested in adding something dark and twisty to my paintings. I am painting portraits of women now and of course had to include myself in my third one on the weekend. In this image I have severe bed head, an old shirt, and I am knitting in a corner of my bed. On my shoulder is perched a black crow. I find the crow a perfect symbol for dark thoughts, as crows have been associated with evil things that lurk in dark corners of the mind. After that painting I had another revelation. As I like to paint lonliness and depression (go figure), I thought one way to add a small twist of humour was to have the symbol of darkness doing something fun or interesting. Anyone familiar with the painter Hans Holbein (painter to King Henry VIII) may be familiar with his series of woodcuts entitled "Dances of Death". In each image we see a skeleton representing death leading some hapless victim towards their maker. I am going to include small elements of some of these images in my paintings. I'll have to wait and see if it works.