Ballet Face

This is a 3″X5″ mixed media painting on canvas. The sides are 1.5″ deep and are painted pale vintage green. This painting is SOLD
I love watching the faces of new ballerinas. These are the girls that have made that shift from ‘taking a ballet class’ to ‘being a ballerina in training’. Imogen has made that shift. When I peek through the window of her class to catch a glimpse of her, unaware that I am watching (unlike parent days when she is constantly looking to me for a wink or a nod), she is so fierce with concentration that it is breathtaking. This is serious ballet business and she is serious about her business. Her eyes are so intense and sometimes, when they are doing skips or gallops, her mouth is held in a strained and unnatural way. (Something that obviously disappears as they get better at their craft, I have yet to see a professional ballerina stick her tongue out to the side of her mouth as she takes her curtain call curtsey.)