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strange and beautiful portraits
Queen of Hearts: portrait of Nathalie
oil on canvas 2003
Oil on canvas, 22x18 inches, Martin Dace 2003.
There are very few times in winter when you can get secondary school students to sit in daylight: at weekends they are either doing homework or out with their friends. Therefore this painting was done by candlelight in weekday evenings.
I set up a large collection of candles to the right just off the picture. I had to use an electric spotlight to illuminate my canvas, and even with this it was difficult at times to see just what colour I was painting with. For this reason it was particularly necessary to work with a controlled palette: lamp black, burnt umber, raw umber, white, yellow ochre, raw sienna, venetian red, each colour having its particular function. For the playing cards I used in addition ultramarine and cadmium red.
The electric spotlight caused light to bounce from the floor onto the underside of Nathalie's arm: something I had to live with. How Georges de la Tour managed I don't know!
This is part portrait, part play acting. Nathalie holds the Queen of Hearts in her right hand and turns towards us the right side of her face (the side controlled by the rational side of the brain). A recent study showed that more than half of portraits show the left side of the face, and the proportion of portraits which show the left rather than the right side is greater in portraits of women than it is in portraits of men. This portrait goes against this trend. However, in her left hand she holds the Joker.
All images are copyright © Martin Dace 2003, 2005: you must contact me for permission if you wish to publish or reproduce my pictures. Permission will usually be granted for web use provided my authorship and copyright is acknowledged and a link back to my site is provided. A link from my website to yours is also a possibility!