Elen's Circus

Fifty tiny six-by-six figure paintings and two months of worry later I saw some success. It was a juried one-off fundraiser that started it all- 50 paintings in 50 days. The show required that all of this be hung together tightly in some sort of bad craziness that compelled me to come up with a way to tie it all together visually. I devised to paint behind all my little dancers a unifying background, Matisse’s famous ‘La Dance’ painting. The resulting effect of fifty of my miniature dancers interacting with Matisse’s larger red figures created a delightful spectacle. I thought of Calder’s Circus and I am now exploring the possibilities further.