A femme fatale

This is another painting from Fabian Perez, who is my favorite contemporary painter. its title is Tess IV, according to his website, which I find rather dry and impersonal. There is another one titled Saba with Glass of Red Wine, featuring the same model I think, if not the same character, but I prefer this one. In the Saba painting, she looks rather bored, in this one she seems to be enjoying her red wine very much. I would have titled it Femme Fatale. I would title most of Perez's painting featuring women Femme Fatale actually. He painted the archetype perfectly, its dark haired version at least. This is why I was making a distinction between the model and the character earlier: whoever is the model, whether her name is Saba or not, she is not this character, living a completely different life on the frame, an existence one of glamor and luxury, but not devoid of danger, maybe even a hint of tragedy.

Apart from my usual fascination for the work of Fabian Perez (even though I am a philistine when it comes to art), I am uploading this painting because it is one that accompanies the hot summer nights of drinking to come. It it is a beautiful summer day today, if a bit hot and sticky, I thought to bring a bit of glamor and exoticism to it. Perez is the painter of hot summer nights. I also love to read crime fiction and as I mentioned before I associate many of his paintings with crime fiction. If I could write a story for each one of them, it would be some hardboiled, even noir stuff. With plenty of femmes fatales to write about. Sadly, I did not see yet his new exhibition. Something to look forward to, if it is stoll going on.