One of the things I strive to do when designing a painting is to map out a way to infuse a few surprises for the viewer. In my plan for this piece, my idea was to use as little of the figure as possible. I began with a touch of realism in the model’s face and hat, then shifted into a stylized abstraction of her image. The whimsical use of color and texture on the shawl and sky above the gilded orb suggest a conceptual realm. In the end, all melts away into a lustrous circle of gold, intimating a concealed beauty wrapped in an enigma as she hovers in an imaginary world.