Original artwork description:

Final Dive (Swan Dive)

“‘Once more she gazed at the prince with half-glazed eyes, rushed off the ship down into the sea, and felt her body dissolve into foam. Now the sun rose out of the sea. Its rays fell so gently and warmly on the deathly cold sea-foam and the little mermaid did not feel death"

This is a quote from the original, and very dark tale of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson, this inspired the painting and the title of this piece.

This painting is 21x29.5cm painted on wood panel, the surface is smooth, I have worked here are many, many layers of paint and ink and varnish, the texture is tactile, with crackle effects and smooth finishes, you want to run your hands and your eyes over it!
In the layers pearly inks catch the light and the surface can almost look like water.
The image and gesture is poignant and expressive, the contrasts of gold, teal and red really makes this piece stand out.

The piece was created as part of the Den Lille Harfrue Collection – the little mermaid. Created in lockdown to express my feelings about the restrictions, being unable to have social contact and also experiencing incredibly vivid and at some times quite scary dreams, a lot based underwater.
Not only did I draw on my own vivid dreams as inspiration for this piece, and this whole collection, I also looked at one of my favourite Fairy Tales as a Child- The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson.

Materials used:

Inks, acrylics, varnish on board

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