Name: Vikki North
Location: USA
Title: ‘Chiquita Banana- Carmen Miranda’
Price of Original: $1500 (Prints $79)
Size: 16″x20″
Medium: Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas
Artist web site:
http://www.theredchairgallery.com/
http://redchair-vikkisblog.blogspot.com/
http://artgiftsunder99dollars.blogspot.com/
From Vikki:
Do you know that Carmen Miranda only made a total of 14 films in her life? We still know her today as the ’ Chiquita Banana Lady’. According to the IRS, in 1943 she was highest paid woman in the U.S.. Her flamboyant costumes and fruit-laden hats became her fortune.
She actually had a pretty rough life once she came to Hollywood and it all became her downfall. I write about it in my blog.
As I researched her , the thing that struck me was Carmen was extraordinarily beautiful. Her features were almost doll-like.
This painting will be part of the Minimal Palette Master’s Series I’ve been doing this year. (Her fruit-tutti hat shown here- I designed for her . My rendention is pretty reserved by comparison to the ones she actually wore.)
Needless to say Carmen Miranda is a very beloved Wild Thing. Referenced source- Wikipedia.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Dana Aldis // Sep 18, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Lovely! What a wonderful smile – you captured her doll-like essence. And her headpiece is quite a hoot.
2 The Host // Sep 18, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Thanks Sonya. I told you wrong. She died at the age of 46! I knooooow. So sad.
3 The Host // Sep 18, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Thanks Dana. She looks almost to perfect in all the photo’s. You’d think she’d been airbrushed, but it wasn’t around in her time. I think they shot them behind silk screen and that’s what gave them the flawless look.
I actually created this headpiece for her. The one she had on didn’t work. I wanted her to have fruit and especially bananas on her head for this portrait. lol
4 Lisa Lancaster // Sep 18, 2010 at 8:22 pm
You really captured her natural beauty. I love the colorful fruit, it really completes the picture.
5 Vikki // Sep 18, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Thanks Lisa. I just had to have bananas on her hat. lol
6 Rusty // Sep 18, 2010 at 9:50 pm
She was so beautifully adorned in her photos. It was clever of you to put the hat in color. A beautiful legacy but a tragedy in life or death.
7 Vikki // Sep 19, 2010 at 12:28 am
You’re absolutely right Rusty. As I painted her – I found myself constantly thinking- she doesn’t look real. She’s to perfect… like a mannequin. But, you know, this is how she appeared in photos at the peak of her fame. ( I’m sure the tweaked them by whatever means they used then.)
In her later years she started looking more ‘human’ and round around the middle, but she was also heavy into drugs and alcohol at that point. I’m sure that took a toll on her beauty.
I wanted to show her as she looked when she was happy.
8 Ray Shuell // Sep 19, 2010 at 3:09 pm
This series just gets better and better. I remember being fascinated by Carmen Miranda when I was as a child, though I wouldn’t have known her name at the time. This beautiful woman on our black and white TV set, with fruit on her head, my father sitting on the edge of his seat, watching her. The thing I remember the most is how everyone seemed to love her. I didn’t know until now what a tragic life she’d had. Once again, Vikki, you seem to have captured the subject’s essence. Beautiful, her and your painting.
9 Vikki // Sep 19, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Thanks Ray. I’ve had a lot of fun with this series. I really enjoy researching they’re background. My memories of her are as a wee kiddy also.
A director by the name of Helena Solberg made a documentary of her life in 1995 with one of Carmen’s younger sisters contributing stories and the like. It was called ‘Bananas is My Business’.
10 gwen // Sep 22, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Love this mix of Sepia and Color. What a fabulous tribute to a fabulous woman! Just gorgeous!
11 Vikki // Sep 22, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Thanks Gwen. She was sure a pretty lady. I have 7 so far and just adding to the series slowly but surely.
I like the sepia also and doing something that’s virtually monotone has been really a good exercise for me. It’s so easy to grow dependant on color for separations of elements and I find myself being more consious of my color values when I get back into a standard piece.
12 Sarah // Sep 25, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Vikki, I found myself drawn to the jewelry you have also adorned her with and the subtle color in the part of the hat wrapped on her head leading into the full colors of the top of the hat. I was curious, browsed images of her various hats that she had worn. Art hats.
13 Vikki // Sep 25, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Hi Sarah, Yes-part of her costuming as Chiquita was to be heavily clad in jewelry. The hat isn’t factual. Its only a slight reference of the one that she was wearing in my photo source. I couldn’t find a photo of one of her fruit laden hats- so I created my own. (couldn’t resist poking the 2 bananas out in a silly manner.)
14 Sarah // Sep 29, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Ha! Well, how can one not love bananas caught in a silly manner?
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