Monday, December 14, 2020

Brothers and Sister - Postcard of the Horatii

A portrait group I painted for Julie O'Brien of her cousins in New Zealand for Christmas in the year of COVID
 
 
The interlocking gazes in the photo I started with reminded me of the brothers in David's Oath of the Horatii somehow and the pic also had a Norfolk Island pine or some other Araucaria in the background, so I found a view with some more to stand in for the severe McDonald's arches in David's neoclassical allegory of duty and filial piety(and murder of siblings and spouses in their name - this is the Pacific version so there are no wailing women or terrified children).
 
 Pictorially the columns are kind of turned on their head - like the trick Marx pulled on Hegel. Living(and dead) trees, not polished stone columns create a dramatic angle, not holding it aloft but emerging from it underfoot!

Fun and games!



 

 

 
A portrait group I'm doing for Julie O'Brien of her cousins in New Zealand



 

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