A Tale of Two Cities Opera

12×16 inches, acrylic paint on color photo

This set up was illuminated by the afternoon sun coming in from one of the fan lights at the south end of the Tampa studio. I used paint to illuminate the Eiffel Tower in the foreground, and made a “sea” of the pistachio shells that made up the road the coach was on. The painting of Chopin’s Ballade was a “background,” and I worked paint into this as well. Part of Henry Plant’s Tampa Bay Hotel (not the University of Tampa) and the finials of Blake Casper’s Oxford Exchange are joined by the stairway from the Kennedy Street bridge to the park across from the River Walk. So why not think of it as a tale of two cities, with the Dresden type figurines at the foot of the staircase? Love that film of The Scarlett Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews (“sink me!”). Dickens and Baroness Orczy came alive in this polyformative image!  All will be well!