"Lorsque parut l'aube aux doigts de rose..."

Marina Dieul · 01-18-2008, 12:04 PM

Hello,
I wish I could have more time participating to the Forum, but...
( I also wish I could have more time to paint, and more time with my children and... well, let's do what we can when we can .)

Here is " Lorsque parut l'aube aux doigts de rose..."
36" x 48", oil.

Thomasin Dewhurst · 01-18-2008, 12:12 PM

Lovely, excellent work, Marina. You are really sweeping ahead with your ideas and their execution! Tremendous. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

David Draime · 01-18-2008, 12:13 PM

Marina,

What a delicious painting! I really love the composition. The arrangement of the three little figures is perfect, I think. A contemporary painting - obviously, but one that (for me, at least) hearkens back to Bouguereau's sublime compositions - particularly the poses. What a great vision you have!

David

Marina Dieul · 01-20-2008, 09:25 PM

Thanks, Thomasin and David !
I wanted to try a bigger composition with 3 figures and well... it was challenging ! Once I found the arrangement of the figures, the rest followed without too much problems.
I'm glad you like it !

Alexandra Tyng · 01-20-2008, 10:54 PM

"When the dawn seemed to the fingers (petals?) of the rose???????"
Help, please translate, Marina! I don't know French and I'm curious to know the title.

I love this composition. You've painted the three little figures with your usual combination of intensity, wisdom and cherubic innocence. The idea of using a baby or small child as a vehicle for imparting ideas and archetypes is brilliant. I also like the way you have conveyed a feeling (for me) of time confusion. Is that Greek lettering on the torn-off posters? That and the graffiti on the cement seem to imply a time in the distant future. There is a bleakness to the world as if a great civilization has been wiped out, but there is a new possibility of beginning.

Even if you have only a limited time to work, it seems that you are producing a string of masterpieces.

Richard Jones · 01-20-2008, 11:38 PM

Marina,

This is really beautiful. I love the composition and the figures. Excellent.

Enzie Shahmiri · 01-21-2008, 07:45 PM

Ah what a treat to see this new post! Beautiful as always and I especially like the nifty trompe d'oleil with your signature on it.

Laurel Alanna McBrine · 01-21-2008, 09:58 PM

Stunning! I would love to know how you planned this painting and what reference materials and methods you used. Very interesting and appealing work.

Julie Deane · 01-21-2008, 10:15 PM

Lovely! Bouguereau also came to mind, like David said. I think it's the children and their clothing and pose, the choice of colors. And the beautifully painted skin tones.

Please share what the title means - it's obviously a symbolic piece.

Marina Dieul · 01-22-2008, 10:08 AM

Thank you Alex, Richard, Enzie , Laurel and Julie !

Well, I think I have to explain a bit...
The title comes from Homer. When I was a child I read several times The Odyssey, and I remember how much I loved that every day was begining by " When the child of the morning, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared... " I think it was repeated 162 times, and like all children I liked repetitions ( it's very reassuring, I think...) To make it shorter, I kept only " When rosy-fingered dawn appeared..." which is long enough for a title although my favourite was ( sorry I didn't find a translation so it's my words ) " When rosy-fingered dawn went out of her cradle of mist...)

Well, this is for the title. This painting is once again one where differents parts of me join.
It was quite a long process, and it appeared to me evident only at the end.

So, during my chilhood, ( beside beeing influenced by italian renaissance ) I was influenced by greek mythology ( which is certainely reponsible for my taste for allegories ) and I quite early discovered also modern greek culture. I never learned ancient greek, although I speak quite well modern greek. This is certainly the reason of the feeling of time confusion that Alex mentions.

I began this piece at the begining of the summer, I didn't really knew what direction it would take, but I had already the idea of the wall, and 3 figures. I organized severall photo sessions, and these 3 figures come from 2 different sessions, but same place, same hour ( so almost same light ). The child who raises her arm and the one on our right is the same child. I also used a combination of 3 photos for the 2 on the left.

Before I left for holidays, I had an harmonious composition of 3 figures on a wall. That was not enough. I knew I wanted something contemporary, and I was thinking to some torn-off posters... I was looking in the streets if I could find some nice exemples, but couldn't find some neither in Montreal, nor in France. Then I had an opportunity to spend 2 weeks in Greece ( first time since 10 years !) and in Athens ( which is quite a dirty city) I found lot of beautiful exemples so the idea of greek lettering was totally obvious.
The landscape of the background is from the village I know since my childhood. I couldn't make some plain-air painting this year because I tried to come back with not drown daughters, but I painted this landscape many times before ( since I was 8 years old, I think !)
So all these elements finished to find their place in this sort of puzzle. It's a combination of planning, chance,intuitions and recollections.