What makes one paint a particular subject? I believe it is both complex and simple. In the case of this work, I wanted to do something based on the Guennol Lioness sculpture, dating back to 3000 BC Iran. I saw a photo of the sculpture in one of my art books and was captivated by it. The idea had been rattling around in my creative brain for at least a year, but I wasn’t sure how to render it. The sculpture is very simple yet powerful. How to create a 2D painting that had the same qualities yet retained a sense of originality and modernity?
Then I stumbled upon this story of the sale at Sotheby’s for $57 Million dollars, the most money ever paid for a sculpture! Amazing. You can copy this link into your browser and read the story with three high resolution photos of this beautiful and powerful piece of ancient art.
http://futuremodern.blogspot.com/2007/12/guennol-lioness-oh-my.html
This work is probably a progressing one, as it feels incomplete. I often will spend time re-rendering my digital paintings and saving many versions until I hit on the right one. This process can unfold over long periods of time.
Recently I was looking at astrological charts and realized that Mars was returning to Leo, where it was at my birth time. The energy was there to paint a Lion figure, part of my personal mythology. I felt that the Lion needed to be male, as am I, so I added a mane. The golden color represents nobility, an attribute of the lion and of the sign Leo. My idea was to keep it simple….gold on black or maybe deep, dark blue. Black won the toss. The most recent version is available as LionHeart Eight on this blog. MyArtistEgo thanks you.
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