5" x 7" - oil/panel

Please enquire about this painting from the Doug Rugh studio.

From the Oil Painter's Journal: Pretty and Pale It's interesting how our sense of beauty changes as our culture changes. I'm thinking of Sargent's Madame X and her use of arsenic to give her skin a beautiful cool tone. It was an acceptable practice of the time. And while I took a swim in a pool filled with naturally occurring arsenic in a small spa near the town Georgia O'Keefe lived in, I now have doubts about the use of arsenic for bathing and have always had them about the use for beauty. Regretfully, I let by a few apple seeds as a child and that may be the source of a slight tinge. But I can understand the attraction to the wan with its pleasing variations in color. The forehead and neck -- protected by the hair -- keep their delicate hue while the cheekbones and nose, always out in the elements and pressing against the bone, take on a pink tone. Greens and violets turn forms as they move into shadow. Lips are flush with complimentary color and blood vessels in the neck remind us how thin our external layer is. Like marble, the translucency of skin absorbs and softly radiates light and it is a great disappointment when a mid-Winter model shows up after a visit to the tanning booth or, even worse, with makeup.