This is the third installment of a series I intended to create with a black and white portrait with a splash of color for accent. After “Lady in Green” and “Flapper”, I thought a series would best be finished in a trilogy, like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Indiana Jones’ to name a few. I found this portrait, originally taken by Angelo Capitanio on pexels.com, and I loved the idea of circling back to “Lady in Green.” The headscarf, not only brings that back, but it is a wonderful article of clothing to add that color. The way it folds upon itself to create highlight and shadows, that gives way to show off the cuts of paper. The original photo had her waist high in a body of water, which I originally wanted to capture, however due to the size of the piece to match “Lady in Green” and “Flapper”, I had no choice but to crop it out.

I chose yellow for this piece because the last two pieces were done in cooler, calm colors, and for this one I wanted to go the opposite direction with a warmer color choice. My original plan was to use an orange shade, but I could not find enough shades of orange to complete the headpiece. The other options I has were red or yellow. I chose yellow because I thought it fitted the youthfulness of the subject. The vibrant yellow gives of that energy of youthfulness in this piece.

This piece is the third attempt at creating something original with the possibility of having prints created for future sales. Although this is the last piece in my series of black and white portraits with color accents, I did enjoy the process and seeing how the color chosen can change the mood of the piece. When choosing this color I used photoshop to see how an orange shade would look and the intensity of the piece shifted. This was also the first time completing a three piece collection, I am happy on how these three pieces came together, and it was fun exploring color choices, and while I am always exploring on how to push this style further and find the limits of what can and cannot be done with it, I am sure I will be back to explore this style even more.

With this piece completed I submitted this piece along with the other two pieces into various competitions. “Maiden did win the Talent Prize for the 12th Teravarna’s 2026 Portrait contest, and was also featured in The Visual Art Journal #49.