This is called “Little Egypt” and it references two things. Egyptian violet is a new color I discovered which is this violet that just has this glow to it. The way that I work is that I add a base color to a panel that’s all gessoed and ready to go. On it a line drawing goes. There’s a real resonance between blue and this Egyptian Violet. There’s a great contrast and this blue is really electric. I like that there are several blues playing off of each other.
The figuration itself is very animated. Unlike most of the paintings where they bleed off in multipul areas, this one only leaves the canvas in one spot. It has this impression that it’s this animated figure that is dancing off of it. And the name “Little Egypt” comes from a belly dancer from the 20s or 30s. I liked the animation of this figure which to me looks like a little belly dancer.
There’s a lot of texture in this painting. This is not one of those paintings that came in 3 or 4 or 5 shots, which is the way I prefer to work, but it doesn't always happen. So it’s many layers and also using collage in certain areas to indicate what it may need. But ultimately I take the paper off and paint it in. So it’s all painted but there's a real feel of collage because of this process.
