Phthonus is the Greek minor god that is said to be the personification of jealousy, envy and romantic rivalry. In the myths he is not a sympathetic character. He turns up and gets people feeling all the bad feels.
I painted him afterward.
His head is down and turned away, his eyes are closed, and the entire painting is soaked in magenta. Marble almost always gets painted gray, and I did not want to do that. So I put him under a light that does not exist. Every value in here is some version of pink, violet, or blue, and the only true white is the thin line running along the top edge of the wing and down across the shoulder.
Now, the cracks are my favorite part. They are drawn in with a tiny brush in dark violet, thin as a hair, running across the chest and down the arm and up near the ear. Marble has veins. Statues crack. That is just what happens to them eventually, and it felt right to let this one show it.
See, envy is the feeling nobody admits to. Everybody has had it. Nobody posts about it. I liked the idea of painting the god in the moments where he’s wondering if his job is worth the cost.
Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches. Painted in Las Vegas, August 2026. Signed on the back.
Phthonus is the Greek minor god that is said to be the personification of jealousy, envy and romantic rivalry. In the myths he is not a sympathetic character. He turns up and gets people feeling all the bad feels.
I painted him afterward.
His head is down and turned away, his eyes are closed, and the entire painting is soaked in magenta. Marble almost always gets painted gray, and I did not want to do that. So I put him under a light that does not exist. Every value in here is some version of pink, violet, or blue, and the only true white is the thin line running along the top edge of the wing and down across the shoulder.
Now, the cracks are my favorite part. They are drawn in with a tiny brush in dark violet, thin as a hair, running across the chest and down the arm and up near the ear. Marble has veins. Statues crack. That is just what happens to them eventually, and it felt right to let this one show it.
See, envy is the feeling nobody admits to. Everybody has had it. Nobody posts about it. I liked the idea of painting the god in the moments where he’s wondering if his job is worth the cost.
Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches. Painted in Las Vegas, August 2026. Signed on the back.
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