Lily Briscoe

Lily Briscoes, oil on board, 20 x 16”

Lily Briscoe is the shy and quietly determined painter that Virginia Woolf brings to life in her seminal work, To the Lighthouse. This is a book that I reread almost yearly because of its intimate depiction of the lives of a beautiful family, of whom dear Lily lives along the periphery. Lily's painting, something that very few women practiced in her age, is both her raft of independence from the fixed position of women in her age, but also her foil. She is both confident in her approach to painting, as well as questioning. I love that a writer can understand the soul of the painter in such an accurate way, as we talk both about our lives and to ourselves in every canvas that we paint. This literary-inspired oil painting is named for the daring painter who stole this book for me and it stands as a tribute to the intersection of literature and visual art.