Lie Beside the Dead

14" x 11", oil on wood panel, 2014

This painting was inspired by this quote by a soldier near Verdun:

“You ate beside the dead. You drank beside the dead. You relieved yourself beside the dead. You slept beside the dead.”

Originally, I was going to inscribe "LIE BESIDE ME" on what eventually became Mud Mud Mud but that painting worked better as a companion to Blood Blood Blood, so I used my own hand as a model and combined it with a muddy, puddle-ridden field and a line of barbed wire for this painting.

This was painted towards the end of my WWI painting project, and it shows signs of a looseness in technique (that can also be seen in The Kindest Cut) which I quite enjoyed and would have explored further had I many more paintings to finish. As it stands, that looseness I learned will have to be explored in my next non-war-related bunch of paintings I have in mind for 2015 (and beyond).

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