Dance Print

Dance “‘The fourth sister was not as bold, she stayed out in the wild mid-ocean, and said that it was precisely this that was the loveliest – one could see many miles around one on all sides, and the sky above was like a great bell-jar. She had seen ships, but far off, they looked like gulls, the amusing dolphins had turned somersaults, and the huge whales had spouted water up out of their blowholes, so it had looked like hundreds of fountains around her.” This is a quote from the original, and very dark tale of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson. This piece is 15x15cm painted on mounted birch panel, there are many, many layers of paint and ink and varnish the texture is tactile, with crackle effects and smooth finishes, you want to run your hands and your eyes over it! The pale gold contrasting with the subtle teal hues and greys create such impact, the piece is both figurative and abstract, full of gesture and movement. The piece was created as part of the Den Lille Harfrue Collection – the little mermaid. Created in lockdown to express my feelings about the restrictions, being unable to have social contact and also experiencing incredibly vivid and at some times quite scary dreams, a lot based underwater. Not only did I draw on my own vivid dreams as inspiration for this piece, and this whole collection, I also looked at one of my favourite Fairy Tales as a Child- The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson.