"Embla" Original Painting

"Embla" by Benjamin Goward

48 x 60 inch acrylic on canvas 2025.

Embla is inspired by a reference photo of a green tree python handled by Serotonin Serpents in West Virginia, USA. It is the second of the ongoing snake series by Benjamin. Why snakes? Why this snake? Benjamin was intrigued by the challenge of painting snake scales in his first snake painting of a blue pit viper. Embla is the next level up by increasing the size of the canvas as well as nearly full coverage of the area with scales and very little negative space. The dominance of the the greens was also an exploration in colour theory as well as an attempt to make a virtually all-green painting attractive to look at by adding subtle accents of blue, purple, yellow and red to create a wide range of greens, as well as light vs dark values.