Disclaimer: Star Wars is not mine.
Summary: Palo Gvanish crafts his greatest masterpiece, and the piece that will ultimately lead to his arrest. The Gungan Venus.
.5 ½ years before Anabasis.
Gungan Venus
It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to... The feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.
- Vincent Van Gogh
The canvas is prepared, stretched and pressed and primed, and it sits before him, white and lifeless and waiting to be breathed upon. For a time he simply watches it, silent, waiting for the canvas to speak. He tries not to think during this process, tries to keep himself open to the near-silent voice of the canvas and the paints. But he cannot empty his mind entirely, cannot cast out all thoughts, so he lets them wander as they will, guided by the blankness of the uncreated world stretched out before him.
Today, this canvas speaks of longing and beauty, desire and power, perfection of form, strength and grace. He dips a brush and lets it soak deep of the dark ochre pigment, pauses, listens, and then the brush comes down and moves across the canvas in strokes equal parts grace and power.
He begins with the ridges of the ears and builds the face from there: the slow smile, the eyes with their mingled confidence and innocence, the slight tilt of the head that speaks of challenge. The body flows from the face, painted in lines of poise and assurance, and the challenge is there, too. The swamp fills itself in around the figure, and the first phase of hurried expression is complete.
Now he listens more intently. He listens to each part of the body, to each pore of the canvas, applying light strokes where they are needed, heavier, bolder strokes where they are called for. The swamp becomes muted, a respectful backdrop for the beauty manifested within it. Limbs are smoothed, skin caressed with the light touch of the brush. Vibrant, living strokes accent the ridges on the ears and the shine in the eyes. The artist breathes upon the paint and the canvas and brings it to life.
A Gungan woman rises from the swamp, drops of water clinging to her skin. Her head turns slightly to regard the viewer intruding upon her private sanctuary, and her gaze holds both exuberance and challenge. It is the challenge of a beautiful being in love with life and unabashed by all that life holds, confident in the beauty and mystery of the world and of her own body.
The canvas is silent, and the artist's brush, too, draws away, respectful. The Gungan woman will speak for herself.
Palo Gvanish looks over his work and smiles. It is good.