
I recently stumbled on a gorgeous old picture of a Vamp from the 1920s on sepia toned photo paper. The picture really captures a quietly seductive scene and the "Vampish" woman pictured is so beautiful that I immediately associated her with Lilith. Lilith, a figure in some Christian and Jewish lore, was the seductive predecessor to Eve. She was cast out of the garden for her ways and in Victorian times Peoples blamed her for men's ahem wet dreams. Though some religions spread a ghastly picture of Lilith others think her a goddess with fiery colored wings. Either way she is an interesting and little known character whom I though deserved a little ode. I’ve wanted to do a painting of her for sometime but could never quite get a fixed imagine in my head until now.
I used every media I have to create this painting. The colors vary from brilliant to subdued. The figure is painted relatively realistically using soft gradation with oil paint while the background is textural and slightly abstract. The wallpaper is painted using gesso for texture and washes of watercolor: as are the pansies (flower of thoughtfulness) in Liliths hand and the drapery. For the keyhole from which the viewer is peering at the vampy fairy creature I used pastels mixed with pen and ink and watercolor to create a slightly blurred area with details taken from the keyhole fixture in my studio. The fixture has some gorgeous crazy quilt styled patterns engraved into the bronze that echo the Victorian style I love to paint. The window onto the world through which she peers is done with gesso and then layers of oil.
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