Always larger than life

 

Although the gathering takes place on-line, The Zodiac Cafe  has truly become a powerhouse with the arrival of Leo, the king of beasts.  Here are the typical Leo characteristics, as described by Manly P. Hall from his esoteric sources:

"Face broad and somewhat flat, hair wavy and usually light, inclined to frontal baldness; mouth firm; eyes commanding; shoulders broad; body well-formed."

My paintings in this series have been alternating male and female subjects.  With a female Leo in mind, I decided to give the wavy hair more prominence than the frontal baldness.  I leafed through my life drawing sketches and thought I'd found a promising subject -- so I invited her to an audition at the Cardboard Club.

Alas!  Another false start.  But that Leo head of hair reminded me of a vintage photo I'd saved from some art link or another.  How's this for a mighty Leo gal?

Do be sure and read about this woman -- Alma deBretteville Spreckels.  Some of her claims to fame:--  Six feet tall; art student-nude model; possible originator of the term "sugar daddy" applied to her wealthy husband, 24 years her senior, who eventually made her a well-regarded socialite-philanthropist in early 20^th century San Francisco.

I was longing to try out my new birthday sketchbook -- with its silvery-charcoal cover, dove-grey pages, and red ribbon place marker -- so I gave "Big Alma" a try:

Oh, no.... as I scrawled at the bottom of the page:--

All right.  Let's try again -- she, too, deserved a Cardboard Club audition.

Yikes!  This one looked uncomfortably like Melania Trump.

The  choice was clear:  Abandon ship or full steam ahead.  Leos are not quitters, and in that spirit, I proceeded directly to my canvas and whipped off this underlayer.  ("Whipped off" as in ....worked for about 5 hours)

  

 And here's the final version, "Zodiac Cafe - Leo" (copyright 2020).

  

Are you longing to know how Leo appeared in my "Astrological Plants" series of a decade ago?  Not surprisingly, the types of plants assigned to Leo are radiant sun-like discs -- since the Sun can be loosely described as Leo's "planet."  Think sunflowers.  Think dandelions.

Hmmm.  I'd never stopped to wonder where that Dandy Lion name originated and here's what I found:

 "Late Middle English: from French dent-de-lion, translation of medieval Latin dens leonis 'lion's tooth' (because of the jagged shape of the leaves)."

But for my Astro Plants painting, I chose not the dandelion but another wild plant that's often mistaken for it -- Hypochaeris radicata  -- commonly known as "Hairy Cat's Paw" !!