Couples - Belle and the Ghost

There is a playmobil ghost and a disney Belle figurine that have been sitting together on my mantle, casually put there by the kids but I kept thinking about them. This is the start of my idea for this series. I began to think of them as a couple, an unusual couple and this led to thoughts of other pairings.

I liked this idea because it seems like a natural flow from my last series where I made plants into romantic novel covers. I see these as being a snapshot or a novel cover into the imagined relationship of these people and animals.

Belle and The Ghost, 9" x 12" oil on canvas 2017

With this painting I work with the idea of solid and transparent and make a solid body and a ghost body. I like her long gloves that have her hand reaching to touch his heart. Her dress I imagined had a subtle plaid pattern in yellow and I love the fluid brushstrokes of those lines. I am thinking about life and death and loving being alive to the fullest because death is there beside you and you touch upon that idea but with gloved hands. Also there is just the fun thought of a women being in love with a ghost that she can see and talk with.