The Sieve

As I said from the beginning, when I first thought about painting the Vestal virgins, I worried about if the painting could be considered obscene and not suitable for public places.  My plan was to obfuscate with misplaced shadows and lights and outlines to make the obvious less obvious?  Does that even make sense?  

I also alluded to what I've learned about the Vestal Virgins, of the belief that these Priestesses possessing magical power, and as proof of their chastity by rendering a sieve leak-proof.  In other words, they can carry water with sieves.  My plan then was to include a sieve, or sieves in my painting to give it a smidgen of historical facts.  Perhaps not everybody researched the topic and some of us would wonder about the significance of such sieves and beg the question.   This would be an interesting morsel of trivia anyways.

There, this painting is not about nudity but references tantalizing background information about the institution of Vestals.  I feel much better now.

The nude is born with a pencil sketching first.

Defining my light values with ink and flesh color acrylic, and finish up with wavy white and ink lines for definition and highlights.

I am establishing the first hint that this is a painting about the Vestals.  A Vestal fidgeting with a sieve to see if it's still watertight?  Perhaps to validate her status as a Vestal Virgin?

As I am planting the clues I get a sense of going down the rabbit hole.  What to reveal next.