Most artists I know say they have a muse; I certainly do. Famously, male artists often find their muse in a model and lover. The same is often true for female artists, at least the ones I know.
Just rereading a recent Times article about Gala Dali, Salvador’s muse, model, promoter, lover and wife. (Reader, please assume no significance in the order of those five roles … just felt like the correct literary rhythm … I leave the ‘significance’ ranking to you.)
Have to admit, there is something spellbinding about painting one’s lover. Rendering a good portrait is always an intimate act. For me, it’s impossible to paint any face and not feel that face … the sensation is not really empathy, it's more like inhabiting the model. As I tell subjects, I can’t paint your cheek without my cheek tingling. When the subject is a loved one — a family member or close friend … it’s impossible to love someone and not want to paint them. As for a lover ... I guess I need to paint them, just like needing to be near them. As Dali said of Gala’s requirement that he visit her only by written invitation, “Sentimental rigor and distance — as demonstrated by the neurotic ceremony of courtly love — increase passion”.
Here’s a Dali painting of Gala. Those of you who know me are thinking … ‘oh no … not spheres again!’ Point taken. But maybe that’s something Dali and I share ....
