8 × 8
Oil on Canvas
The Double Botticelli Study Series (Valentines Day)

Working from studies of Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera, I translated these iconic compositions into a series of rose-tinted under paintings. The blush ground acts as both atmosphere and pulse, allowing the figures to emerge through warmth rather than line alone. By filtering these Renaissance allegories through a contemporary lens, and timed with Valentine’s Day and Botticelli’s (and mine) birthday on March 1, I aim to soften their mythology into something intimate and immediate. The works become studies not only of Botticelli’s forms, but love as renewal, love as a return, and as love to be a source of inspiration.

In Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, the goddess’s pose, with one hand covering her breast and the other her groin, is known as Venus Pudica (modest Venus), signifying innocence, purity, and divine beauty rather than shame. This classical pose emphasizes, through contrast, her vulnerability and sexualized femininity as she emerges from the sea.