Beauty Remembers the Beast...getting there...and disappointment...

I wonder if I'm the only one who, no matter which version of Beauty and the Beast I read (or see), always feels a sense of disappointment, of anti-climax, when the Beast turns into the handsome prince.  Beauty falls in love with an extraordinary person, she makes a huge leap of faith, and then he turns into a man.  Just another prince, like all the other princes in all the other faery tales.  Did she feel let-down too?  Did she wonder if her sacrifice deserved better?  She loved a beast who turned out to be gentle and loving, yet wild too.  Not the sort of husband who would care about table etiquette, or small talk at parties to keep guests amused.  Not the sort of husband who would care if she went barefoot, or let her hair hang down.  And what does she get?  A prince, for whom all those sorts of things would be of paramount importance.  Not a man to run wild in the woods with...a man who would require a wife who knew how to behave on state occasions, to entertain endless boring sycophants...to behave APPROPRIATELY.

I'd choose the beast, wouldn't you?

My Beauty did.  She's coming along, I've spent HOURS (or rather OWW-ers) hand-lettering the poem  onto the canvas.  Almost done, but OH, my aching fingers and shoulders.  So here are more progress pictures, as requested.

Some winter trees added to the horizon.

The whole canvas.  91cm x 91cm.

Beginning the free-form hand-lettering.  Guess all those hours in Typography and Hand Lettering classes during my Graphic Design course were useful after all!

Close-up.  2nd last verse, phew!

Almost done!

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SIGH!  Just after I posted the pics above, I sat down outside in the sun for a well-deserved cuppa...and got a phone call.  Apparently my entry form, for the Art Award/Competition that I entered "Beauty Remembers" in, did not arrive in time.  Sad to say, it seems that it takes Australia Post 5 days to deliver a letter that I could (and obviously SHOULD) have dropped off myself in 10 minutes.  And it takes the organisers almost two weeks to let me know (on the day before it was to be taken in) that I could have saved myself the trouble of rushing to get it finished.  So I'm feeling rather down and disappointed.  These competitions are a good way to get your artwork out in the public eye.  Ah well, I've finished the pencil and it's now sealed, so I may put it aside for a bit, as I have another painting to do.  Then I can pick it up again and take my time over it.  But here's a pic or two of where it's at now, ready for the 'colour wash' step.