Peter the Great and Alexander II

It was my goal to post something brand-spankin’ new this week, but as it goes I haven’t had any time to work on things.  Instead, its time for another oldie but goody.  Plus Candace told me that I have to post these sometime.  Plus it vaguely ties in to the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

While taking Russian Imperial History at Trent I developed a Historical Figure Crush on Peter the Great.  Although he was a douche at times, he had all of the magic and machismo of an important Russian historical figure.  Including, most importantly to me, a death surrounded by an unlikely but awesome story: death by gangrenous bladder.

Anyway, as we studied him, I felt the urge to paint a mini-portrait of him so that I could carry it around like an old-school lover.  I just looked it up and it is referred to as Portrait miniature.  Good thing we cleared that up.  One night when I had an evening to myself, I sawed a piece off of an old mandarin orange box and began to paint.  At first I had to fight off the feelings that it was a silly plan and that I could never paint that small.  But then I got into the zone, as they say and the time flew by.  When I looked I had painted this.  It’s a little wonky and unfinished, but I love it, so don’t mess with it.

Peter the Great

After this I wanted to do it again.  The next Russian dude with an awesome death story was Alexander II.  This guy had several attempts on his life and reportedly lectured one of his would-be assassins on how he could have done a better job.  …and then I saw this portrait of him, which my boyfriend would refer to as “Don”  or maybe “Boss don”.  So here is what I painted.

CassArt12 099

Yesss!!!

After this, I attempted to do other minis, which I may post later.  None were quite as awesome as these were.

Anyway I totally recommend the Russian History courses at Trent University, so long as  it is taught by Olga Andriewsky.