American Beauty
She was sitting across from me in the kitchen when I first noticed Eva. There was something incredibly magnetic about her, yet her shyness was special. I started to think about the movie American Beauty, you know the one with Kevin Spacey in it. I imagined Eva to be the girl in that vision, covered with rose petals, and immersed in roses. I asked Eva that very day if she would be my model for a painting and she agreed. We set a date and I worked on creating a platform for her so that we could re-create the pose in the movie. It was a ramp set against my window in my studio at a 45° angle, and she would be back lit by the window. It all happened rather quickly, within 10 seconds she had struck one of the most beautiful poses I can remember. I developed the color study for it, took reference photos and enlarged it out onto a 54 inch canvas. I then had to go about the business of buying large white plastic roses and arranging them on the platform. I painted the roses without her for many many months. I arranged three light sources around her, one being the back north window, a blue light, and a pinkish red light. Although these light sources made a colorful dance on her skin, it was quite another story to paint the roses in three light sources. It took me a long time to figure out the overall white balance for the picture and the temperature of the light between the three lights sources.