Done with Ophelia, on with Juliet

Ophelia is finally done, varnished and ready to hang. I am going to submit her and Xaipe to the Exhibition at Industria Studios entitled Mirror, Myself: A Self Portrait. We'll see what happens.

I've decided to continue on this theme of Shakespearean women. Next in line is the well-known tragic figure of Juliet. I did a preliminary sketch yesterday and thought I'd show it to those interested. In this next painting, I'm not going to focus on her death, but on the morning she has to say her last goodbye to Romeo. He is not in the scene, but has just left out the window, and as she stares regretfully at the eastern horizon, a lark alights on the windowsill. Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers "argue" about the lark, and&emdash;as always&emdash;I never forget to include a highly symbolic bird:

"Juliet: 'Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day./ It was the nightingale, and not the lark,/ That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;/ Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree./ Believe me love, it was the nightingale.'

"Romeo: 'It was the lark, the herald of the morn,/ No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks/ Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east./ Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day/ Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops./ I must be gone and live, or stay and die.'"

After Romeo expresses his will to stay and die because Juliet wants him to stay, Juliet gives in and presses him to leave:

"Juliet: '...It is the lark that sings so out of tune,/ Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps./ Some say the lark makes sweet division;/ This doth not so, for she divideth us.'"