New Norm Exclusive: Flamenco Norm

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From the first Norm I painted to the newest… during the last two days of the Daily Norm’s Spanish season, I will be presenting the two new Norm paintings which I have been working on while in Spain. This is something of an exclusive for the Daily Norm, and for me, as this is the first time I am presenting my “next generation Norms” to the public. Unlike the limited collection of original Norm canvases, the next generation Norms are slightly more sophisticated, benefitting no doubt from several years of interim painterly experience, although maintaining the same air of lighthearted joie de vivre as the original collection.

The first next generation Norm is Flamenco Norm. Flamenco Norm is something of a star. She exudes the energetic, impassioned movement of the flamenco, the multiple folds and frills of her polka-dot skirt swirling through the air as her body pulses with the intense and powerful rhythm provided by the guitar player behind her. Her arm is thrust upwards as the energy and spirit of the dance reaches the tips of her twisting fingers, while in her face, her eyes close in the intensity of the moment of duende, when all the raw, almost orgasmic emotions of the dance culminate in a moment of pure, uninhibited passion. Around her, the setting is an old flamenco club like those found in the smallest little villages of Andalucía, where the priority is not in the outmoded decor of the yesteryears, but in the moment of the dance. Hence the walls are starting to bulge and crack, the posters on the wall advertise past flamenco stars, alcoholic beverages and other flamenco paraphernalia, a single bulb hangs from the ceiling lighting only the star of the show, and the wooden floor is battered down by generations of dancing spectacles upon its resonant boards.

Flamenco Norm (2011, acrylic on canvas) © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown

This is not the first time I have been inspired to paint the flamenco. Below is my 2004 painting Duende, painted to a degree in the style of Picasso, the dancer’s face betraying dual emotions as she both fights and indulges in the intensity of emotion rupturing at the moment of duende.

Duende (2004, acrylic on canvas) © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown

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