Apsara Dancers at Angkor Wat

This is part 3 of the Apsara theme and by far my most ambitious work. The picture is essentially a construct of different elements of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and the Khmer culture brought together for this composition. While the Apsara Dancers play a prominent role within this narrative, I did not want them to dominate the scene, so I put them within their cultural context by including temple architecture and the serpent statue as well as a landscape and the presence of water (that was critical to the success of the original Khmer civilization).  The addition of clouds is intended to make the scene more dramatic and the blue sky is deliberately very dark to enhance the contrast (often seen in black and white photography). Furthermore, I have tried to covey a sweeping vista by setting the composition within a “widescreen” aspect ratio (1:2.9).
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The picture is 50cm by 145cm and took 140 hours to draw over six months.