DIVA (Blues singer Dana Gillespie) Print

1960s aristocratic wild child Dana Gillespie has been variously British Waterski Champion, Hammer Film Starlet, Mary Magdalene on stage in the first production of Jesus Christ Superstar, early girlfriend of and musical collaborator with David Bowie, Mustique drinking buddy of HRH Princess Margaret, film actor alongside Robert Powell in a Ken Russell movie and esteemed blues singer. A friend and occasional working colleague of over 40 years this riotous tableux vivante of her life takes the reimagined form of Ingres' Emperor Napoleon as a monumental piece of theatre. Painted in three colours primarily Lapis Lazuli blue it is signed by Dana herself. Surrounded by a gilded and sculpted Sansovino type frame specially made for the painting by Sculptor Peter Standley of Artisan Stone.