Sunlight is yellow. Autumn leaves are yellow and sometimes so is gold. All these things are beautiful but Rebekah is the most precious. She has hair like wheat, her eyes like burnished gold, and her skin is tawny. I paint her monochromatic, only hinting at all the shades of yellow that color her. She becomes simply yellow, like smiling suns and cheery fires. It seems a bright happy color, a children’s color, and so full of innocence and light. It is this innocence and light that I want to capture. This is Rebekah’s essence.
Here is one where she is arrayed like a child, gussied up like some plaything. She is a Victorian doll that stood on her bookshelf, with her ruffles and butter cream lace. Flowing ribbons tie under her chin in a large bow, securing the bonnet. Her silk stockings and leather shoes are clearly visible as one small hand lifts her skirts. There, you can see each detail, each golden curl of her sex and the illusion of lingering moisture. When I see this, when I paint this, there is an intimacy that I never felt, even when I held her.
There are other portraits in this series. This is Rebekah as a ballerina stretching at the bar, the light just catching the curve of her ass beneath the stiff skirt. See the way her hair falls from the tight bun? Pieces of it curl around her neck and she looks at you from the corner of her eye, a half smile on her lips. She knows she is being watched. Is she merely stretching there before she dances or is she already performing for her audience of one?
