"Naked Came the Strangers" is a print of an original painting inspired by an infamous thermal bath in Baden-Baden, Germany. Several hot springs supply thermal waters to the spas of Germany’s Black Forest. Given my affinity for hot springs, I insisted on visiting this area during my 2021 honeymoon and they did not disappoint. The famous spa town of Baden-Baden (German for “bath bath”, the repetition only to distinguish itself from another German locale named simply Baden for… “bath”..) is home to many palatial Renaissance-style baths built up during the 1800’s, making the Freidrichsbad Spa depicted in this painting one of the most opulent bathhouses in Europe. Spending time in these baths was as lavish as I had hoped and part of the novelty was indeed the requirement to exist in a state of complete nudity while in the spa. It felt like stepping back through time, and the familiar sense of being reborn after emerging from a spring was not missing. I made up the mass of greenery entering through the open dome at the top of the composition – in the real building the dome is enclosed. Here the intrusive botanics reach downwards toward the glow of the spa waters below, the bath seemingly summoning the entity from above. It is a light corollary to the effect that higher temperatures are having on the globe’s plant life, wherein the heat and accompanying humidity produced by the greenhouse effect do indeed stimulate a greater accumulation of plant mass. They too are intoxicated by the introduced heat.

*The title was borrowed from a New York Times article written about a visit to the famous spa by Stuart Emmrich

The original was painted with oil, acrylic, and gouache on canvas

PRINT DETAILS:

- This is an archival print of my original painting.
- Each print is signed on the front.
- Frame and mat are NOT included.
- All of my prints are produced with professional art materials including pigment-based inks and archival Somerset Velvet fine art paper. 
-In order to keep your print in great condition it is important to frame with archival materials (mats, backing board, etc.), keep out of direct sunlight, and UV glass if you really want to go all-out!

SIZE:

- Paper is larger than the listed size, as there is a ~1.25" white border around the actual image to enable easier matting, or float mounting to display the deckled edges of the paper.
- Image itself is shrunk down ~1/4" from size listed to expose signature line when matted or framed in the corresponding standard sized mat/frame.

Vendor

Noelle Phares