"Ambergris", 24 x 30 cm is the latest painting I'd like to share with you.
The painting is one of mystery, what is the woman doing, what is she looking at? There is the phrase, shrouded in mystery, which implies shadow, darkness or things being covered. Is the woman hiding or revealing herself? The mystery is to be seen in full light.
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I find it amusing that I recently looked up ambergris (flammable substance found inside sperm whales, perfume makers like it because it makes scent last longer, sometimes used in cooking from memory of the quick read of the Wikipedia article I did because I happened to see your reply to riverflows) to find out what it was because it was in Moby Dick which I finally got around to reading and then I see this XD
I hadn't even thought to look up the term. That adds another layer to the story. Thanks for that.
Have you ever looked up the one of the real stories that inspired Moby Dick? Whalers out to sea from Chile were rammed by a huge sperm whale. The tale that follows is one of cannibalism.
Then there was a legendary whale that regularly sunk Byzantine ships around Constantinople.
I only just looked that one up last night trying to see why (other than a convenient plot device) the whale might have been so aggressive.
then realised how long I've left this tab to answer you open for ^_^;
Can see why there were so many stories of sea monsters/leviathans.
this is YOUR work? Very cool. Shelooks like she's coverig herself as she's looking down, not up or forward. I'm intrigued by the title actually. Why 'ambergris'?
It's a study of a portion of one of John Singer Sargent's paintings, "Smoke of Ambergris". Ambergris, I guess is some sort of incense, as she was looking down at an incense burner. I liked the mystery of it, and soft colours created through the bright lighting, which is different to what I normally paint.
Ah I see! I watched a doco on Sargent the other day ..it was amazing.
He's the gold standard of the modern figurative painters. There's a great deal I could learn from him. You can see later in his career the influence the Impressionists had on his work. Maybe it was all of that time he spent painting with Monet.