Painting of the Day: Lion

"Lion" by Ryohei Hase

  I love so many things about this painting. The colour pallette, the spontaneity of it, the lost and found edges.... The colours really complement the soft, dream-like atmosphere of the subject. The sitter's body language also portrays the whole "pretend to be strong" (the artist's words, not mine) idea. I also like the symbolism behind it; that we wear masks and pretend to be certain things... But in fact we are vulnerable and fragile, but it's something we don't like to show others, so we keep our masks up.

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