Oil on canvas, 36 X 60 inches
The composition for Falling into Sleep is based on a series of photos of my model Jenay reclining in the studio. The beautiful contour lines of her compact body, naturally relaxed and without tension, are overlapped to create a time-lapse conglomerate spread over the format ground and pivoting on the toes of her extended left leg. The warmth and energy of her body is expressed through a full spectrum of warm and hot colors woven across her contours to suggest but not describe anatomical features.
The background pattern is a swirling and pulsating mass of varying blue strokes completely obliterating any sense of penetrating space. These blue strokes are broken by orange and red ones emanating like heat from her body. Each of the discrete strokes is the end product of four or five successive strokes of varying hues and values, lightest of which is applied last.
The gentle curls of her hair act as the bridge between the figure and the ground, beginning as distinct locks of hair that transform along their lengths into pattern of the background.
© 2014 Richard David Serros: Artist, Designer and Art Historian
