This painting was sold.

30x30 inches, oil on canvas

This painting created from a live model in New Orleans, evoked imagery in me of another world. It was painted in one sitting from a model who was very patient for several hours. I don't know how long it took.

I dreamed about it and wrote this passage:

The Mermaid

A woman lies curled up asleep surrounded by water. She is the dream of a Mermaid dreaming of being a Land person with legs to walk. When awake she is a Mermaid of the people of the Sea. When she sleeps she is a woman in the fantastical world of land people where societies celebrate themselves and the other societies that populate the planet. She dreams about living in a world of great accomplishments and wakes up only to see she actually lives in a dim world with few opportunities.

The world of the Sea people is a spare world with no large societies. Fire is unknown as a real thing and thought to be real only in dreams. The rich world of possibilities dreamed about in sleep creates a yearning in young Sea people to go on land and be one of these Land people who walk and go to plays and read books.

So each year the most adventuresome of the Sea people leave the sea and flop ashore. Each year they go further and further, moving on until they die. But before they die, they sleep and dream.