Mystery Model

Well we don’t know who the model was for this studio figure study. Likely a model who posed for the Art Guild or a model in the life drawing room at Wexford Collegiate School for The Arts. The pose is a little stiff which is common to life drawing studies where everyone wants a slightly different pose and what is finally chosen by the group is somewhere between all the ideas.  One has to wonder about the bowl of fruit in terms of if it is making a good addition to the composition. It certainly does allow for the repetion of its colours in the background thereby spreading the brightness around and creating variation for the eye. There is a dream like quality to the eyes as they search for the heavens but there may have been significance to that point of which we are presently unaware. The portrait part of the painting is beautifully rendered in a specific manner whereas the background assumes a more vigorous brushstroke and an abstract meaning.