Shyly, she gazed at the strangers from behind the sumptuous silk curtain. The smell of roasting coffee filled the air. Her mother would soon bring out steaming cups to welcome us...
Gently tear away the curtain. All of Africa is in the gaze; in that aroma. Gazelles frolic across the Serengeti and a leopard rests in a acacia tree near a river...
...And a small girl is queen in her mother's kitchen.
This is the first painting I have developed from my series of coffee paintings (see below.) I finally got a chance to use a piece of papyrus I had been saving - the sole reason being that it had a fly stuck in it. That fly has traveled all the way from Egypt! And now it rests in my painting.
The gilded coffee beans remind me of scarabs, or large, worked pieces of African gold.
Acrylic on paper with silk, coffee, coffee beans, papyrus, glass beads, 22k gold leaf and one dead fly.
25 x 32 cm.
2 comments:
Little queen indeed.
A lovely, lovely painting, once again using unusual materials, coffee/ beans this time, like you used old coins etc. before.
The social/ ethnic/ historical commentary is almost a trademark theme for you now.
Yes, less so than the erotic for the time being.
Of course, eroticism can also be an opportunity for social commentary, if well manipulated. As you know so well.
Post a Comment