After Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Titian’s Poesie paintings

(Private collection)

This 1×1 metre oil on canvas painting is inspired by the story of ‘Perseus and Andromeda’ from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (translated by Ian Johnston). The painting also references the elements and fabrics of both Titian’s ‘Perseus and Andromeda’ painting from 1556 (Wallace Collection, London) and his earlier ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ painting from 1523 (National Gallery, London).

(Listen to me blabber away about it in the instagram video below).

The sky in this painting is based on a photograph I took from my studio window on the 14th August 2025 as the sun was setting. The constellations weren’t visible at this time (daylight!) but I added these in place on the left side to show what would be there if it was darker. Looking NW on that day (the direction of my main studio window), the constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia and Pegasus would have been present (see image below from https://stellarium-web.org/ )

Coincidentally, the wall of the house where the painting now hangs is in pretty much the exact NW direction as I saw this sky from my studio, so it now appears as a glimpse of sky from the past in the correct orientation!

For my exhibitions in Cahir Arts and The Waterford Gallery of Art I included a miniature version of this sky measuring 11x7cm.

Video / instagram link below:

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Thanks to Malcolm O’Connell for the canvas stretcher and to the collectors who now own this painting.