Crime Scene Investigation

“Film Noir” was our group’s theme for that week’s exercise. The challenge was to choose objects for a still life that are only black or white and to push our range of paint as far as possible to meet the contrasting elements before us. I took the opportunity to paint a small toy panda posed under a reading lamp in my mostly-white bathroom. He’s holding a toy magnifying glass over a spot of “blood”. I imagined him as a lowly police constable calling attention to his grim discovery.