Adrian Gottlieb’s vision for Morning Roses was two-fold.
First, he sought to communicate the concept of the garden as a retreat — a place not only to bathe the senses, but also to provide a private sanctuary. To that end, the subject in Morning Roses is carefully posed. She both savors the fruits of her garden while the positioning of her left hand, subtly suggests that her mind may well be elsewhere.
Adrian’s second motivation was to capture the unique lighting he had experienced during his years painting in Tuscany. To accomplish this, in the often too brilliant lighting of Los Angeles, the artist arranged for his model to arrive at the studio before dawn each day. The setting was arranged for often exasperatingly short sessions, to capture “the golden hour” of sunrise, when the light bathes the subject in a world awash in a haze of pinks and golds.
The result is a complex, thought provoking work that combines the beauty and luminosity of Gottlieb’s Verdaccio painting method, and also invites the viewer to contemplate a story.
Morning Roses is a life-sized 50” x 35”, Oil on Belgian Linen. The carefully chosen frame is an 18th century design in gold leaf by Rhett Ashby.
