Painter, Novelist, Poet

Crucifixion of Nicole

THE CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE – panel 1 PORTRAIT OF NICOLE (oil on canvas 24”x36”)

THE CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE – panel 2 “COS EVEN YOUR SHIT IS BEAUTIFUL” (oil on canvas 36”x48”)

THE CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE – panel 3 “HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?” (oil on canvas 24”x36”)

THE CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE – (THREE PANELS OF UNFRAMED TRIPTYCH )

THE CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE – (THE THREE PANELS IN RED AND GOLD ALTAR FRAMES )

Oil portrait inspired by MONICA BELLUCCI in the films “Marlena” and “Irreversible” and used as first panel in my “CRUCIFIXION OF NICOLE TRIPTYCH”, which was based on a scene of sumptuous beauty and vio- lence from my Sudan novel, “Red over Blue”.

All the background figures in the final version were painted out because when I put all three panels up together, I felt that this middle panel, being so richly populated, drew the eye straight into it thus hindering the flow as it were from panel to panel and disrupting the idea of it being a triptych. The triptych was inspired by a scene of sumptuous beauty and violence from my Sudan novel ‘Red over Blue’, and also inspired by the performances of Monica Belucci in the films ‘Irreversible’ and ‘Marlena’. The brutal beating of the woman is being witnessed by a strange monkey-like creature (half-animal, half human) who has bought himself an ice cream cone and drawn up a chair so he can enjoy this vivid spectacle in comfort, just as though he were in a cinema watching a movie. The figures of the other watching passers-by, the shocked-looking woman on the extreme left and the boy nervously smoking on the extreme right of the panel, seem more disturbed. The triptych is framed under museum glass perhaps not to protect the painting from the viewer, but in order to protect the viewer from the victim’s body wastes and fluids.