Explicit

Working from the live female nude I have been confronted with a pose like this many times.  I am drawn to foreshortened angles.  They almost always offer a high level of complexity and difficulty.   Head first or feet first, I like foreshortened poses.   A problem with feet first poses is they can become too "explicit".  Meaning they can feature the vagina prominently.  With the exception of a few drawings, I routinely reject these poses and choose something more modest.

A recent evening I scheduled a two hour session with a long time model.  My aim was to do a small (9" X 11") oil sketch.  I try to do these regularly to keep fresh and to experiment with my palette.  Often the model and I spend a great deal of time and effort finding a good challenging pose.  This evening, however, the model "fell" into this pose right away. She was comfortable and I was in a very confident and relaxed mood. The only issue I could see beyond the difficulty factor was the vagina.

I decided to go for it.  After a failed first attempt I adjusted my angle a bit and settled into painting.  Here is the result.  Is it shocking or inappropriate?  I honestly don't have a clue. I very much enjoyed doing the painting.

Reclining Nude, oil on canvas, 9" X 11", 2013