Edgar Allan Poe

In August 2002, my desire to expand beyond watercolor into oil painting began with this oil portrait of an American literary figure: poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). Poe was born January 19th when the Sun was in Capricorn; at the time of his birth, Mercury (which represents the mind, writing, and communication) also was in Capricorn in the same degree as Poe's Sun. This portrait reflects Poe’s preoccupation with death and the macabre (in poems such as Annabel Lee and The Raven and stories such as The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Pit and the Pendulum) by showing him in a stark white shirt and sombre black coat against an almost blood red background. Poe’s jet black moustache and eyebrows add to this effect, as does the pinkish red underpainting that peeks through in patches in his shirt and around his eyes and hairline.