Elen

Finally finished the follow-up picture to "Faeral" with the lovely Naomi Wood modelling her horned head dress again. This time it is of Elen, Goddess Of The Ways who rules over amongst other things, paths in forests. Although the painting is full of detail the composition is very simple being based on two unevenly sized blocks of the complementary colours yellow and violet.
I was originally going to have her reaching across a snow-covered path but changed my mind halfway through and changed it to falling water. I had to resist the temptation many times to keep the two blocks of colour separate by not introducing yellow and orange highlights into the foreground branches etc as this would compromise my original intention of the simple composition. Another painting that is hard to photograph, the original isn't quite so so contrasty and saturated as it appears here...
This will probably be a painting heading for this year's IlluxCon in Reading PA.
Oil on linen 20" x 30".
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.