The Sirens

"The Sirens" ink, acrylic, bees' wax, oil 36 by 48 $900.
This is the story of the Sirens: they were the daughters of a river god and a Muse. They were childhood playmates of Persephone, and when she was carried off by Pluto they failed to protect her. As punishment for this, Persephone's mother Demeter turned them into half-bird creatures who could be heard singing in the forests.

Sometime later they challenged the Muses to a singing contest and lost. As punishment for that the Muses plucked their feathers and decked themselves with them. The sirens became half woman/half fish creatures still with their beautiful voices, living in the cliffs of the islands between Sicily and Italy. Their singing bewitched passing sailors who crashed to their deaths on the rocks after trying to follow the voices. Two times the charm didn't work: when the Argonauts sailed by with Orpheus aboard, they focused on his unsurpassed music and fended off the sirens; later when Odysseus passed, he had himself lashed to the mast so that he could hear the sirens' voices but not respond to them. In despair , the Sirens cast themselves into the sea and were changed into cliffs. (Who's Who in Mythology, Alexander S. Murray, British Museum)

"The Sirens" is painted on birch panel. Starting with a splash of ink on the wet wood, I then poured over the dried ink with various colours of acrylic. When that was dry I added beeswax, melted and poured on. After smoothing and polishing the beeswax, I worked into the image with oil colours.
As usual, I named the painting after it was finished.