Painting of a Balinese legong dancer in a gold headdress, arms raised mid-gesture, emerging from a warm ochre darkness

Photographed in the artist's studio in Batuan, Bali. Colour may shift slightly between screens.

Figurative · 2024

Legong in Half-Light

by I Nyoman Astawa

$2,100

A legong dancer caught mid-phrase, gold leaf catching whatever light the room gives it.

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Artist: I Nyoman Astawa
Studio: Batuan, Bali
Year: 2024
Medium: Ink, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
Size: 80 × 110 cm (31 × 43 in)
Framing: Unframed, ships rolled
Edition: Unique original — one only

dancer
legong
gold leaf
figurative

About this painting

The legong is danced by girls, and the hardest thing to paint is not the costume but the stillness inside the movement — the moment at the end of a phrase where everything stops except the eyes.

Astawa gives the figure very little edge. She resolves out of the ochre ground rather than sitting on top of it, and only the headdress and the fingers are fully drawn. The gold leaf is real, applied in small squares, and it changes completely depending on where the light in the room comes from.

Ink, acrylic and 22k leaf on canvas, unframed, signed verso.

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About this painting

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