Die Entführung aus dem Serail
by Kristin Serafini
acrylic on gallery canvas
24″ x 48″
$1200 SOLD

This is Konstanze waiting for Belmonte to rescue her from the Turkish harem where she is being held captive. If you listen to the “Wer ein Liebchen” duet with Belmonte and Osmin, you will hear Osmin sing about how he has to keep an eye on those flighty butterflies in the harem. (The German word for butterfly is Schmetterling.) I enjoyed the rich pattern on the wall. I confess I did create a stencil, for the sake of speed and consistency. I found that it looked better once I applied a translucent wash of burnt umber over the cerulean blue pattern. It created sort of a worn/lived-in effect. This is the only one where the lettering fades in to the background. I wanted the viewer’s eye to follow where Konstanze is looking – out to sea. And I didn’t want dark letters to distract from the nice arch shape.

Gabriel thinks the swirly bits are the music. I don’t know what they are – they just happened. That seemes like as good an explanation as any.

-Kristin Serafini