Magpie

Description

Condition:       No condition noted.

Description by Artist:     “Magpie was the most recent in my native art portraits. This piece is more contemporary, I didn’t dress her in traditional native regalia. It was based more on fashion, because the model I used for the portrait is actually a native model named Shannon. So it’s not like the others were I used historical photographs. I usually title the paintings with the traditional Indian names of my subjects. But in this case I didn’t know the Indian name of the model I used, so I called it Magpie. There actually was a real native woman called Magpie. So really it’s a combination of fashion, a modern day model and a historical native woman. So it really was put together a lil’ different than the other native art portraits.” – Riel Benn

Notes from DaVic Gallery:     Riel pays much attention to balance in this portrait of Shannon, his model, challenging that balance on one side but then compensating with something else on the other side. For example hand on one side with earing, hair and feather on the other.  Intensely, ferociously feminine and strong as many of his female subjects.