Sorry about the glare. Black paint is often difficult to photograph. Wet black oil paint is impossible… a small painting of a favourite object, a plaster bust of Diana, set up against a dark fabric to show off her profile. A painting is never quite that simple, of course.
This plaster cast of Diana arrived in the studio with Apollo. I saw them both in a Perth curio shop, just north of the old William Street horseshow bridge back in the days when it was a one way street going into the city. I was on a bus and, happily for me, sitting on the right side to be able to see them in the shop window when we stopped at the lights. It seemed a very long way to the next stop… I ran back to the shop to peer through the glass, fingers crossed, to see if could afford what it said on the price tag. I couldn’t, but I bought them anyway. Whatever it was that I had come to the city for that day could wait. (And there are so many ways to prepare pasta… ) I would be painting portaits of this pair long after the family stopped glaring at me for my inconsiderate squandering of the grocery allotment. And I have, here she is again.