Animarii no.4: Snake - The Shedder of Old Skin · Original Oil Painting

Original oil painting on professional watercolour sheet. 9x12 inches. Painted with oils and accented with hand-applied foil in the eyes — three eyes, the third more jewelled and luminous than the others, seated in the brow like a pressed gem. Varnished and ready to ship flat in a rigid protective mailer.

Wherever civilisation has existed alongside serpents — in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, the Celtic world, the Americas — the snake has been sacred. In Hindu tradition, the coiled serpent is Kundalini herself: the divine feminine energy sleeping at the base of the spine, waiting to rise through the chakras and open the crown. Shiva wears the snake at his throat as a demonstration of mastery: what others fear, the awakened one holds lightly. This snake carries three eyes. Two see the world as it is. The third — more jewel-bright, more interior — sees what the world is becoming. He has already been through it more times than you can count.

This painting is part of Animarii, a 12-piece series of original oil paintings on professional watercolour sheet by British-Californian artist Rebecca Papillon.
Medium: Oil on professional watercolour sheet. The paper is sealed before painting and worked in highly lightfast pigment oils. 9x12 inches. All original paintings are signed by the artist.

The painted image area is 9x12 inches. The sheet is trimmed to 10x13 inches, leaving a white border for ease of handling and mounting.

Sold unframed. The framed mock-up shown is for scale and framing inspiration only.

Framing guidance
This piece frames beautifully in any standard frame with a 9x12 inch mat aperture. We recommend a 16x20 inch frame as the primary option — this gives a generous, gallery-standard mat with weighted spacing (slightly more border at the bottom than the top and sides, which is correct fine art framing convention). A 14x18 inch frame with the same 9x12 inch aperture works well for a closer, more intimate presentation. Both options are widely available. The 10x13 inch sheet fits comfortably within either frame with room for mounting.

View up close on YouTube