Les amours déchus / discarded loves

I used mixtures of turpentine spirits, linseed oil and linseed stand oil, increasing the fatness with the layers. My paints are mostly Windsor&Newton and a couple of Holbein colours. I start my paintings with a grisaille. The composition is based on several of my photographs.
Back in 2013-14, I was studying nude oil painting and drawing at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris with the artist Gilles Marrey. To get to the school I would cross the Pont des Arts whose guard rails were filled with locks put there by couples to show their commitment for their love. The locks were beautiful and I took several photographs. In June 2015, the city of Paris, due to the danger caused by their sheer weight, replaced the guard rails and discarded the locks. In 2016, I started this painting perhaps to represent the futility of trying to hold on to each other. But in some ways I was also prolonging their testament. My husband and I have been together for 50 years but may be, in the end, our love too will be discarded.