Expression and Desire

To paint as well as a photograph is incomprehensible. This is true for people who cannot complete such a task. For those who do, it is a talent beyond treasure. A photographic memory is enviable. Even to perceive reality in its purest form is talent, something more than practical. Looking at a painting of a woman, she is beautiful. Beautiful in paint, beautiful in reality, there is desire for dreamers. To dream reality, to have pure beauty at reason’s command is a practice and an obsession. Lighted from upper left, this woman stands with back toward light, head turned in semi profile, her right hand held out, and left fingers resting below her shoulder. She wears a white silken toga with a gold clasp resting on her right shoulder. Her dark red hair is pulled back into a tail held with a black bow, it hangs to her mid back. Her skin could be described as pale, but holds a healthy glow, a perceptible color of an awareness of out of doors, but not extensive, not enough to show a desire for attention. She looks directly at the painter with her right eye, the other, shadowed behind an exquisite nose with a shallow curve. Her lips are neither thin nor broad. They are two inviting cushions owned by her assertive expression. She is aware of artistry and sex. She knows the difference. The rouge of her cheek is perfect. It is guessed whether she or another has artistically placed such color. Draping of material, her toga and a covering, hanging from her right elbow and around her waist, is depicted in curved and gradual shadow. Her finger nails are short and leave a viewer to imagine her touch with skin so skillfully painted at her finger tips.