What made the men of our world masters was their ability to capture a holistic portrait, which is another way of saying they painted in the way that women see other people. For Eras Reimagined I put a brush in the hand of the women of the past who would not have to study in secret.

It was during the time of Leonardo da Vinci that expanses in knowledge of so many areas took place. There was agricultural and political revolution that created time for study as well as leisure. If women had an opportunity to study, focus and grow, our arts would have only progressed considerably. In our reimagined history, that is what we experience.

Regarding our history of art, the use of oil paints in portraiture has not only allowed artists to capture the essence of their subjects but has also paved the way for artistic innovation and experimentation.

As we know, it was during the Renaissance period that oil paints gained popularity in portraiture. Artists like as Leonardo da Vinci and Jan van Eyck were among the pioneers who recognized the versatility and richness of oil paints in capturing the intricacies of the human form. Many of the digital prints here call directly from their works. AI has been taught on the masters and we use this to imagine new masters.

When picturing a "re-do" of so many famous narratives that have been painted by masters, almost every one I came to was an oil painting. The richness, the deep colours pull in any viewer and lend themselves perfectly to my goal: take a viewer away from our world and into a sister dimension.

Faces in Oil

Women painters would showcase ability to capture the subtle nuances of facial expressions and the play of light and shadow. The use of oil paints allowed da Vinci to achieve a level of realism and depth that was unprecedented, and undoubtedly women would have developed the same if not further. The events of contemporaries would have been painted instead of biblical stories repeated endlessly. We reimagine images of women to include a multilayer emotional landscape on the same canvas. What can be captured, what can be expressed, even potentially the meaning of certain colours, morphs and expands endlessly in a past without limits.

Another influential artist who revolutionized portraiture with oil paints was Rembrandt van Rijn. Van Rijn's use of chiaroscuro brought a new dimension to portrait painting. Calling upon AI to refer to Van Rijn, in particular the emotional depth and introspection of his portraits, is a direct path to character for our imagined women. The use of oil paints allowed Rembrandt to achieve a rich and textured quality in his works, enhancing the psychological impact of his subjects. One can only imagine what could be captured by a female artist, what emotions could be so subtly expressed by her hand and brush during the time of Van Rijn,