Surya Bai Painting

I painted ‘Surya Bai’ in 2017. It is a painting of a mango tree heavily laden with ripening fruit. The idea came to me to use gold leaf as a backdrop to the luscious fruit evocative of frescoes from antiquity. The Mango tree has long been held to symbolise eternal love, wealth, fertility and even immortality. Written about in the most ancient sanskrit writings it is central to a fabulous *legend of undying love. I use ancient art media which have stood the test of time – wax encaustic, pigments, gold. Beeswax gives color a beautiful translucence making it seem as if light glows from within the painting. Working with gold leaf is a delicate business needing patience and practice to place that filigree just as I want it. Color suspended in beeswax, paired with pure gold, makes for an opulent visual experience. The paper support is Fabriano made from 100% cotton fibre (300gsm / 140lb). I deliberately tear the edges to appear as a fragment. My signature is etched into gold in the bottom right of the painting. * The King of the land fell in love with and married the beautiful daughter of the Sun. But the beautiful princess, Surya Bai, was forced to transform herself into a Golden Lotus to evade persecution by an evil sorceress who was jealous of her. When the king then fell in love with the beautiful flower the sorceress burnt it to the ground. All seemed lost, until a magnificent tree with dark green leaves sprang from the ashes, bearing golden fruits as radiant as the princess. One of the fruit ripened and fell to Earth. It instantly turned back into the Princess Surya Bai. The king immediately recognised her as his long-lost wife and the two lovers were reunited.