Description
By Alexander Timofeev, Russia.
This painting was born from a chance encounter between the artist and his future model in a waiting room. She intrigued him, yet an arranged photo shoot proved disappointingly futile—until she bit into a cookie during the session’s wrap-up.
That was when all the energetic, aesthetic, and conceptual pieces of Alexander’s artistic puzzle fell into place. This girl knows more than her counterpart wishes she knew.
Judging from the sacramental bread in her hand, she’s staring at a priest. The mesmeric painting forces you to step into his shoes. In reality and this painting, the subject is only twelve years old, yet some tell-tale signs point to an older age, both in body and mind. Her eyes are the centerpiece of this work. They look right into her counterpart’s (or the viewer’s) eyes, sending a cloud of messages. A different mood in each eye, together they convey playfulness, irony, caution, trepidation, longing, and temptation.
This evocative painting has been executed with masterful skill, a slightly discordant glamorous touch, a well-considered composition, and brilliant treatment of light and shadow, the glow of youth, and the darkness of someone’s desire.