: www.dace.co.uk :
strange but beautiful paintings
Sleeping nymph : a naiad
Oil on canvas board, 14x18 inches (35.5x45.5cm), Martin Dace 2001.
Intus aquae dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo, Nympharum domus.
(Within, fresh water and seats in the living rock, the home of the nymphs.)
- Virgil, Aeneid book 1
This painting was inspired by a visit to Stourhead Landscape Garden, Wiltshire (National Trust), where amongst other marvels there is a grotto with a pool and a statue of a sleeping nymph. I made this painting from the tiny image in the middle of a postcard, and in the process simplified the forms and removed her clothes (I am allowed to do that kind of thing because I have an artistic licence).
Variations on the nymph theme
Images are copyright Martin Dace 2004, 2008.