Oedipus Rex
|
|||||||
This painting shows Oedipus after the killing of his father, and his marriage to his own mother. Oedipus, having blinded himself out of shame and regret for his unintended actions, is guided by Cerberus, the three-headed dog and the traditional guardian of Hades. The man in the bowler hat was drawn from a photograph of Toulouse de Lautrec (it is said that Lautrec's deformity was caused by the fact that his parents were first cousins). One can only attribute to masochism the desire to paint a large work such as Oedipus Rex (or The Sacrifice, for that matter) with a range of tiny brushes, some double zero in size. It took me over a year to complete this work. That is certainly irrational from an economic point of view. However, I am reminded of a quote from Herbert Von Karajan, the distinguished conductor: "Life only exists to make art possible!" |
|||