Woman on red – Lhasa de Sela

In exactly the year 2000, I finished a painting in Hong Kong of a friend sleeping on a train in China that was inspired by Vietnamese Enamel painting. I decided to add a fiery red into the background above a fairly simple bedsheet over a lady who had fallen asleep from her book. The contrast was amazing and many people inquired about the painting and it ended up in the house of friends in Vancouver, Canada. I wanted to do another variation on that theme, this time with red drapes and an homage to Gustav Klimt in the quilt. This work is more detailed, sensitive and feels more fragile yet more powerful. The model is Lhasa de Sela, a Canadian-Mexican gypsy singer who visited the Reykjavik Art Festival and was scheduled to come back but passed away before that and sadly much to early. If you have never heard her singing voice, it is like never having heard the birds sing. She was a muse and I would like this painting to carry forward her legend to as many viewers and listeners as possible.