I started this painting some time ago and only recently finished it. Sometimes my work is like that - a painting can sit in my studio unfinished for weeks, months, years even. Then a feeling comes to me and I work on the piece until completion. This was a complex painting from the beginning (and very large one too) and it took me a while to work out exactly what I wanted to accomplish in the work. Some of you may recognise the statue; it's title is 'The Burghers of Calais' by Auguste Rodin. I think that for an artist, it is difficult not to be inspired by his work and from the first time I saw his sculptures many years ago, my first thought was that I wanted to do paintings of them.
Although most sculpture is designed to be viewed from the front, I found this view from the back to be the most exciting for me. I loved the hand just appearing in space on the right and the profound look of the older man on the left. But what really caught me was the afternoon sunlight almost cascading through the sculpture. The bronze had a lot of reflected light too, all of which I tried to capture but it is not a literal representation. I tried to add my own interpretation of the colours although the forms are as accurate as I could make them. This is a significant painting for me as in this work (again one of a series of paintings that I have done over the years), I finally brought to fulfilment a desire I had such a long time ago. The painting (an oil on canvas) is titled Reflection of Life and the size is 48" X 72".
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