Centaur (Marie)

This is a part of my series of fantasy portraits. I had an idea that I wanted to represent a female centaur, rather than a male one, as a man the image would have been too obvious. I like the idea of portraying women as figures of strength and adventure, rather than the passive images we are used to in art.
I had been discussing the idea of this painting for some time with Marie (the model), she loves horses, and although she is not a Sagittaruis by sun sign, astrologically she is heavily influenced by Sagittarius and Jupiter, so somehow her character seemed quite fitting for the role of Centuar.

She loves to travel, this is reflected in the background, by the choice of landscape, one of her favourite places, the High Atlas Mountains.I wanted to use the brown and white of the earth and snow to reflect the pattern of the piebald horse.
Also I hope that this shows how a fantasy portrait can be not just a fantasy, but also contain something of the sitter.