Love Puzzle

I painted this gouache on paper image a few years ago. It was part of a larger group devoted to the 'bride in the landscape'. This painting called 'Love Puzzle' appropriates Titian's 'Sacred and Profane Love', a sixteenth century bridal/wedding portrait...unusual for the time because the groom is absent. Venus the Goddess of love is present, but the bride's gaze is dreamy as if she is looking into the future. The figures [Titian also portrayed a distracted cupid] are placed in a pastorale scene, hence the 'bride in the landscape'. Many of the women in my family, including me, were literally young brides in the landscape. Country weddings and then back to the farm...so to speak. I know that women leave their spirits in the land and in the small communities they help build and maintain often in times of severe hardship. Remote living is lonely and the need to conform to country life expectations can consume real identities. Men mark the land physcially with fences, roads, ploughed fields, irrigation channels etc. Whilst the women work with the men in partnership they leave something else which marks the land with their spirits and energy...and sacrifice. Love is a puzzle....
Love Puzzle gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm unframed