"Alice and Las Meninas" Mug

"Alice and Las Meninas" is the title - one of my favourite Alice in Wonderland paintings I've done yet (heck, one of my favourite paintings of any kind I've done yet)! This is the third painting in my sub-series called "Alice in Other Lands" which are paintings featuring Alice in a variety of unusual circumstances, thrown into settings inspired by my love of art history (be sure to check out the first two installments honoring Bosch and da Vinci). Here we have my Alice on the set of one of the most beautiful and famous paintings in the world - "Las Meninas" (the Handmaidens") by 17th century painter Diego Velázquez - the epitome of Spanish Baroque. This is of course my version (for comparison, check out s Las Meninas, hehe). In my painting, Alice is playing the little princess (Infanta Margarita of Spain). Lewis Carroll has a cameo as the painter in this piece (Velázquez). The handmaidens truly must be from the court of the Queen of Hearts. In the distance you can see the Mad Hatter sneaking out the back, the Duchess holding a squealing pig, and the King of Hearts looking typically downtrodden and bedraggled. And lo and behold, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum have squeezed their way into the portrait too. Also if you look at the portrait on the back wall, you may see the White Rabbit! My favourite part though has got to be the devilish Cheshire Cat who has seemingly replaced Velázquez's faithful hound. This is a painting celebrating my loves of Alice in Wonderland and Baroque art - no reason why the two shouldn't go together! I've always thought that Alice's adventures should continue into many other bizarre tales, and you can expect to see more from me in the future. My own lowbrow big eyed take on Velázquez's work was one of my largest paintings to date, and took longer than any other painting I've completed (over three days, which is a long time for me!). This is my own original acrylic painting, completely painted by hand.