At the very onset of the session, I splashed and scrubbed in some yellow and red-purple to key-in Anahita's skin color.

Anahita, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Anahita teaches web design and multimedia classes.

Like most of the guest models we've invited, Anahita was hesitant to pose for the club when I first asked her to.
I had asked her to pose for us a number of times without success, but I think Marcie's gentle nudge last fall finally convinced her that it is worthwhile, so here she is.

When we were deciding the background drapery, noticing her red-purple drapery, I chose an intensely yellow drapery we had hardly used before. I wanted a problem-solving opportunity of working with an intense background, as well as two complementary colors.

I positioned myself so that I could frame her face with the two opposing colors of yellow and purple in the front of her face and the dark of her hair in the back.

One of the challenges of having such an intense background is not to let it dominate the main subject--Anahita. Toward the end of the painting, I lightly brushed in some intense colors on her face so that her face wouldn't lose out to the intensity of the background.