Queen in the Chaos

Oil Painting on Canvas - 14" X 18" sealed with high gloss varnish

This painting is based on a photo I took of my friend Hal, sitting on a bar stall in a glorious fur hat (dare I say, Russian hat?). Hal is the most non binary looking person I've ever met, and yet he/she only uses he/she pronouns and not they/them. This really challenges me, because I really want to call him/her they/them. Haha! I love that people see me as someone who is so well versed in gender and pronouns and yet here I am just like everyone else, still being challenged...still getting things wrong... still learning and unlearning new things every day.

Hal has the most BEAUTIFUL glassy eyes that I have absolutely not captured here at all. Infact, I've not captured Hal particularly well here in the slightest. His face is too narrow. Her jaw too fine and his cheels to high. Her nose to sharp, his forehead too small, and her eyes not nearly dreamlike enough.

What I have done is capture the tension that exists within Hal's presence. Hal has a calm, queenlike energy nestled in fur amongst the chaos of the warehouses where we live. Something regal, peaceful, still and unmoving amongst so much movement, so much energy, so much grit. I think you can also see some of the tension around his gender identity too. Hal's features are actually a lot softer and more youthful, rounder and more feminine than I've done them - but he has strength of presence that I think I've drawn out in the way I've portayed the lines

And projected onto this piece is a large part of myself and my own sadness and frustration at the time of painting. I think it you can feel my presence in the over amplified features that hang heavy on the canvas, the way the colours on the skin are boldly flushed and the sense that the surroundings have some kind of stranglehold, and are closing in or at the very least looming and engulfing the air.

There's a sadness, but also an acceptance, a beauty, a softness and a lot of love shining through. A firm favourite of my paintngs - and I'm excited to paint more of this subject as he really seems to bring something special out of my brush!