River-daughter with water-lily

[bunn]

I painted this for a friend who is writing a story about Goldberry. She had a clear idea of a character who was brown-skinned, with a slightly hooked nose, and long blonde hair that was naturally wavy but relatively coarse in texture. And eyes that were hazel in colour. So I had to take inspiration from a number of references to combine these various ideas. I keep going back and forth about whether it actually worked or not.

Goldberry is the River-daughter, so I gave her a kingfisher feather to wear in her hair, and a water-lily to hold in her hand.