"I painted this humorous series of nude miniatures as a diversion from my large oil paintings of landscapes. The innocent, unsuspecting bride-to-be, waking up, going about her daily routine, dressing and undressing in her bridal gown, pirouetting in a mock wedding dance . . . and a mysterious voyeur secretly watching the young redhead through a keyhole, with who-knows-what evil or mischievous intent . . . it has all the makings of a Victorian soap opera, if there is such a thing. Who is the hidden watcher? A child, the butler, her future husband? The woman seems more upset than afraid when she opens the door. Almost as if she knows the intruder. The ending of the narrative tale is up to the viewer to decide.

In these miniatures, I was influenced by a show of Dottie Attie’s that I’d seen years ago in New York. Her tiny drawings were lined up horizontally in a row, winding around the gallery walls as they told a humorous, melodramatic story. If the poses in this Keyhole Series look familiar, they are taken from Edward Muybridge’s classic book of time-lapse photographs The Human Figure in Motion (circa 1881). After I did two Keyhole paintings on canvas (Numbers 5 and 6), I switched to gessoed masonite for a smooth surface, enabling me to get finer detail."

The miniature oil paintings in this page's online fine arts gallery are:

1. Awakening
2. Distraction
3. Immersion
4. Anticipation
5. Reflection
6. Provocation
7. Transformation
8. Intoxication
9. Transition
10. Diversion
11. Detection
12. Consternation

These 12 paintings are framed as a group. Please refer to the price list.



(Keywords: artists who paint nudes, artists who paint the human figure, artists who paint scenes through keyholes.)