SERENDIPITY #11 Lucy - Bar Confectioner Especial - Te Amo

​​By happy coincidence - serendipity! - (I will get tired of this, but not before you) the exhibition is on for 23 days and since there are 23 paintings, for the sheer hell of it I will be posting about a painting every day throughout . . . ​​​

Lucy - Bar Confectioner Especial - Te Amo. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. 70 x 100cm
​Also available as a 42 x 60 (A2) giclee print.

Te Amo - I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball of course was an incredibly talented & beautiful actress turned madcap comedienne who's show was filmed and broadcast live from the early 50s through to the 60s. A remarkable woman and the more that I've learnt about her the more amazed I am (If you like this painting- go and look up her work on YouTube, read about her . . ) which, in part is why this is one of my own favourite paintings. That and it just seemed to coalesce so smoothly.
The photograph was fairly easy to pick, the colour is very similar to this painting apart from pale blue starburst make-up. And tattoos.  Again to get a flat surface, a thick lining paper silhouette was glued down and the layers of paint laid on top of that. Her hair, stacked high and intricately wavy was a 4-part stencil and it was one of those that was touch and go until about halfway through and it just worked, I couldn't have screwed it up if I tried. No pun intended. The actual drawn and cut stencil blacklines were few and simple, and because of that had to have smooth and certain accuracey.
The lettering came from my photos: BAR  was from a 3D lit up sign in Rome, Its reflection used as balance, CONFECTIONER was a trade-sign on a tin in the Museum of Childhood, ESPECIAL came from a shoe shop SPECIAL Sale sign on Oxford St, I added the E to make it, well, more especial, under that there is BINGO at The New Rose, house! some graffiti text I scribbled and her tattoo lettering was hand drawn as well. The point is,  elements of a painting just emerge in the process. There was no real connection between any of these words at the outset. They may be tenuous or not linked at all - as you would find on a wall with posters, stickers and graffiti.
That's a young Rembrandt van Rijn self-portrait pulling a surprised face, and also my screen saver at the time on the right and the shrieking (decapitated?) head and neck of Little Richard hollering " Lucille, you won't  do your sisters will !" and you can it's be glad it's not the inflated beardy-head of Kenny Rogers.