Cádiz Valpinçon (50)

"Cádiz Valpinçon (50)", oil on canvas, 24x24". For sale on Etsy.

A chiseled young man turns his back to us. I was thinking of Cádiz, the ancient coastal city in Spain. (Cádiz Blue, color #50 in Naomi Kuno's Colorscape book.) Faint echoes of Ingres' beautiful 1808 nude painting known as the Valpinçon Bather (named for one of the painting's owners). My painting is based on something more ordinary, an underwear advertisement featuring Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal. It is a record of my struggle to render a torso. I felt a little lost while working on this painting; stay tuned to see how I address this problem in my next painting.