The Circular Table Painting

At a certain point, I began to tire of painting only masked figures and began to wonder if I could create the same sense of tension and de-personalisation within the eroticised situations using only lighting and composition. This was my second attempt to work in this way. I am a huge fan of Film Noir and with this image, I was hoping that I might re-create the moment of explosion where the forbidden attraction between typical protagonists finally becomes irresistible and the restrictions of formal social ritual are swept aside by an unregulated passion which leads inevitably to disaster and usually death. The precariousness of the embrace is accentuated by the circularity of the table and the objects fragile objects within the formal setting which wait to be shattered.