Birth of Venus is arguably one of the greatest pieces to come out of the Italian Renaissance. Botticelli painted her in the 1480s…peak renaissance. I can’t say I was wildly in love with this Venus as a young artist, I even avoided using it as a study because it’s so wildly anatomically inaccurate…but now I appreciate the power of this painting’s reputation. Art is so under-taught, it’s great when we share a piece…people who don’t know anything about art recognise her.
So my “Rudo contribution” to this piece is my love of colour theory and of the golden spiral. The golden spiral is a well-known example of a fractal. And fractals are a SERIOUS love of mine. I wanted a strong visual pop…blue and organge being complimentary colours that zing and sing to your rods and cones…the combo really brings things to life. I like that I don’t plan my work…the emerge. The composition is strange, my Venus is quite small on the canvas. Colour and geometric patterns are just as important to the piece as the reference itself.
It turned out a dear friend of mine, Tamara, had tapped into the dominant colour theme of the show before seeing any of them in person and came to the opening adorned in orange and blues.