Untitled - Lion Wearing Ruff (2024)

Created in 2024 for Oddity Town, this commissioned piece reimagines the lion — a symbol of strength and sovereignty — within the language of Renaissance portraiture. The ruff, historically worn as a marker of nobility and excess, transforms the animal into both monarch and spectacle. The result is a fusion of feral instinct and artifice, an image that questions where nature ends and performance begins.

The painting’s power lies in its duality. The roaring mouth conveys raw violence, while the intricate ruff anchors the composition in civility and restraint. This contrast evokes the tension between wildness and refinement that defines much of Baroque art: grandeur born from conflict. By treating an animal subject with the same formal gravity once reserved for aristocracy, the work reframes status and symbolism through a contemporary lens.

Despite its theatrical scale, the portrait remains deeply tactile. Each strand of mane and fold of fabric is rendered with visceral attention to texture, balancing painterly freedom with structural precision. It’s not merely a study in anatomy or costume, but in character — an embodiment of authority that feels both mythic and self-aware.

Painted digitally with techniques inspired by late-16th-century oil portraiture, the piece employs layered glazing, chiaroscuro modelling, and coarse impasto textures to mimic the materiality of traditional pigment. The palette centres around warm ochres, carmine, and muted umber tones, creating a sense of aged opulence. Lighting was built from a single directional source to emphasise contrast and depth, with atmospheric scumbling in the background to suggest stage-like space. The blood detailing, though restrained, adds immediacy and corporeality — grounding the work’s symbolism in physicality.