Treatise in Red and Black

Contrast and color surround her while she stares just beyond us. She is thinking, deeply, intently, like Mary receiving the annunciation; but about what? I painted this in the classical style, beginning with a monochrome grisaille and working the color up through thin glazes. What captured me was the beauty of the flesh tones, the fiery red hair, and the deep darkness from which she emerges.