Portrait format oil pastel painting, depicting in the middle ground a arm coming in from the left and a arm coming in from the right. Revealing only a small part of two torsos.

The hand on the left has pinched the nipple of the figure on the right. Whereas the right hand arm is resting languidly on a fabric covered ledge. Above these two arms, dangles a crustacean inspired image borrowed from the artist Hieronymus Bosch.

The visual connection between the thumb and forefinger corresponds to the crablike theme.

There are very dramatic contrasts between the colour of the background of the scene and the fabric in the foreground. There are two lots of fabrics in the painting. The fabric in the forgeound are soft hues of pink and mauve. The background fabrics are a deep full coloured red.

This painting is inspired by a famous painting in the Louvre Paris by an anonymous artist of Gabrielle d'Estrées and her sister. It is a mysterious painting open to many interpretations.

From the Artist:

Why she is clutching her sisters nipple I cannot tell you, but I can say that they are both sitting in a bath and it was known that one of the sisters was betrothed to Henry the IV of France and was pregnant.  Complexitity and mystery is the inspiration behind this work.

I collect and keep images, postcards or photographs. I look at them sometimes for years, and then an idea comes to me, speaks to me and then I know what to do with it.