Original artwork description:

This work is based on my encounter with Raahel (the girl is renamed as an angelfor privacy purposes), who has a wonderful, effervescent personality with a burning passion for drawing and large pictures. I also revisited my interests in tantric spirituality and ancient Indian erotic miniatures. The fact that 2023 is the year of the Rabbit, according to Chinese zodiac, also found it's way into the painting. I recollected the friendship of Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit. No doubt, rabbits are lovely creatures.
The art of portrait is a symbiosis between the artist and the model. Skill is important on artist's side, and so is patience and trust of a model. In the times of countless selfies we all know our best angles and representative smiles, but the collaboration of artists and models has a different value, it shows every vulnerability of a person.
The sitting person is not allowed to move and talk very much, so the person is forced to think. In the process of sitting, various expressions and feelings cross the face of a model. The artist is often privileged to see the hidden personality traits of the model: the cynics become romantic, the stoic become gentle, the happy become melancholic. Then comes the moment of truth when the model gets to see the result of meditative patience and artistic efforts. The experience of model-artists relationship can be linked to the ancient tantric practice of eye gazing, which can be transformed into respectful attentiveness, benevolent contemplation of other person. The artist respects and distinguishes emotional and physical traits with admiration and care while depicting it. It can help at moments when the model feels insecure or depressed about his/her appearance. It serves as a tangible proof of person's outer and inner beauty because it is perceived and captured on paper. The long and painstaking painting process itself serves as proof of worthiness of a model: people in doubt receive an evidence of their value as human beings. “Do you see what I see?” I ask, while the model ponders at the drawing.
It is painted on 300 g/m² Arches watercolor paper and not framed.

Materials used:

Watercolor, acrylic, silver leaves and pastel on paper

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