Octavia

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: private collection.

The images of a woman depicted upside down appear in the paintings of Roland Penrose several times. In “Octavia”, the model is depicted just partially, as if cut into two pieces and covered with sharp thorns, which “grow” from her body. The long hair is tied to the ground with sturdy chains, and a wide diagonal line in the middle of the image increases the feeling of unstableness. Looking more carefully, you can notice that this strange woman is made of ordinary bricks inside, which are used for building houses. All these inexplicable metamorphoses and mysterious phenomena cause horrible feeling of a nightmare.