Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Sept 23, 2025)

Here is my painting as it looked on Sept. 23, 2025. At this point, I was working hard to get it ready for the  the "Homer" event at Porter Mill, featuring paintings inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey.  I wanted to participate because the Iliad was one of the first books I read as I began graduate school in Comparative Literature (and I have some lovely memories of those days) and also because I think the Iliad still has important things to say to us in 2025. 

This painting will become part of a series of literary-themed paintings that I have produced over the past year. This series came about more or less unplanned because of a run of art shows with literary themes that I have recently participated in.  So now I have done paintings related to "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "The Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream," and now Homer's "Iliad".  These paintings  are all the same size (20 x 20), and done in the same style, so maybe at some point I can exhibit them as a set. And maybe there will be more to come.

Anyway, this painting represents the shield of Achilles, but instead of fantastical images (as Homer describes it in his poem),  it is decorated with Homer's words:   the opening line of the "Iliad,"  as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On Sept 23, I added a translucent layer of metallic paint (gold acrylic) to the body of the shield, and added a second coat of gold paint to the edge of the shield.  As I worked, I corrected a few small mistakes.  At this point, the painting was almost finished. There was already one coat of blue on canvas at this point (though it doesn't show up well in this photo), but another coat was needed.  Time to seal the edges and attach a wire.  And obsess over invisible mistakes.  Almost there.