Odalisque

In my intimate drawings I put down what is closest to me — private moments I'd hardly want to reveal, and yet choose to share. This is one of them.

A woman rests on a man's chest, her gaze fixed on his face. Black and white, nothing else needed: just the stillness, the trust, the quiet certainty between two people who feel safe with each other. That tranquility is the whole subject.

The reclining woman — the odalisque — runs all through art history, from Ingres to Matisse. But those were nearly always men painting women. Here it's mine: not a tribute to the female form from the outside, but a moment felt from within it.

This is what intimate sketches let me do — reach the things people keep hidden but live by.

An original drawing. Signed.

Jolanta Johnsson