Oil stick on paper. I continue to draw thumbnail sketches from works by Chaim Soutine then using oil sticks create a new work loosely based on the sketch. The female face afforded me a chance to play with darker colors and contrast. I had been reflecting lately on George Bizet’s opera Carmen leading me to name the painting after the fiery Gypsy who the work was named after. I’ve always been struck by the music and the story behind the opera, a unique subject matter for its time (the lead character being a prostitute with a focus on the working class).
Carmen Thumbnail Sketch
Late last summer I ran across excerpts from a new take on the opera entitled “Car Men”, an eclectic, comical, creative and at times eerie adaptation. The short film was a collaboration between the choreographer Jíri Kylían and filmmaker Boris Paval Conen and received several international awards.
