Upon impossibility

 

As with Andrew Marvell's poem The Definition of Love, capturing the model as she turns from one position to another, verges upon impossibility. 

It has taken me a lifetime to say what I have to say in that never to be repeated split second with the minimum of lines and washes.

I can't remember which of my models was the subject of the painting that illustrates this post and my models are usually equally at a lose in identifying themselves in my work. But that in itself speaks of the universal and timeless beauty of the nude. Andrew Marvell's poem dates from the 17th century; my painting from the 21st.