ELENA

This painting was done for a book cover by a different name. I don't recall what the title was, but the author was Jennifer Blake. I always considered this wrap cover to be one of my best. Apparently someone else did too, because it disappeared somewhere between the publisher and my agents at the time. If anyone should see the original hanging on a wall someplace, could you please contact me? I would be most appreciative. To be clear, this painting was stolen.

The painting was another in my evolution toward a blend of classic and contemporary styles and it broke many of the prevailing conventions at the time, with no candy-colored flowers or over-saturate dresses. Event the composition was unusaual, with the entire image reading as one painting, instead of the left, back cover being treated differently for text. I broke with the montage convention, too, by having a single, powerful image tell the story instead of a mashup of little scenes attempting to relate the story in pictures.