Doctor Aphra Walking Before a Line of Stormtroopers — Print & Oil Painting

Built entirely on depth of field. Three planes, each one softer than the last, and the whole composition arranged so the eye cannot go anywhere but the front.

Aphra fills that front plane, leaning in toward the viewer with the shoulders forward and both arms swept back behind her, as though caught halfway through a stride that is about to become a run. She wears the leather cap and goggles, a scuffed brown jacket over a red-lined shirt, and heavy gloves. The face is fully sharp and openly amused: chin down, eyes up, a small closed smile.

Immediately behind her, softer, stands a pale figure with white hair and dark shadowed eyes in a close-fitting dark uniform, looking straight ahead. Behind that, softer still, a row of stormtroopers stretches from one edge of the canvas to the other, white armour dulled by haze, all of them identical and none of them individuated.

The colour is split hard on the horizontal. The upper third is a deep unbroken blue, almost night; the lower two-thirds are gold dust and drifting sparks. She stands exactly on that division, lit warm from below and cool from above.

Everyone behind her is standing still and facing forward, and she is the only figure in motion, walking out of a formation that has not noticed her going. Part of our Star Wars collection, beside the group portrait in Imperial grey and the snowbound study with a battle droid.