Her Name Is...

2015

When Reeva Steenkamp and L’Wren Scott died in 2013 and 2014 respectively, I was struck by how often the media referred to them as “…’s girlfriend” or “the girlfriend of…”, instead of using their own names. L’Wren Scott in particular had achieved her own notoriety in life, and yet in death was relegated to simply the partner of her famous boyfriend. I thought the media representation of both women was very interesting and worth exploring,and  decided to create a portrait of each woman with their significant other but with only themselves in colour, in direct contrast to the representation they received. I specifically chose images where the couples were particularly balanced – neither person was in a more dominant position in relation to the other. I also experimented with text and typography. I settled on a font similar to that of a newspaper headline, as a direct link to the headlines printed at the times of their deaths. It was also a very conscious decision to use the word is instead of was.

​

I was keen for each of the portraits to in some way reflect the women as they had been in life, so I worked from specific palettes created by pulling colours from a selection of images of both Reeva and L'Wrewn. I wanted each picture to have a distinct identity, with different and/or contrasting colours, but to link them together through the overall style and composition to create a complimentary pair. After some experimentation, I decided on a very flat, matte acrylic background, in order to not detract from either of the women whilst highlighting the lack of detail and refinement of each of the men. Additionally, I chose to highlight and build on the contours of the face and neck through the use of angular shapes and layered watercolours to create a natural depth; this was particularly important to me as I wanted it to represent the dimensional, multifaceted women that I was painting in a very literal way