Tender is the starry night

BURNET — One painting presents an elegantly dressed young couple romantically embracing, maybe a second or two after the end of a languid tango dance. Another painting reveals a man’s wrist resting like a butterfly above the small of a woman’s back with a conspicuous thumb grasping the zipper on her full-length gown. Tiny stars dot the black background in front of the woman’s torso. 

Both scenes are probably taking place during the evening in some urban milieu, perhaps in Austin along Congress Avenue or Sixth Street. As you view both paintings, maybe you will hear the twinkle of piano keys as Joe Jackson sings the sprightly melody from “Stepping Out.” 

Both canvases render snippets of adults’ intimacy without overexposure. The pictures reveal something happening — but leave no definite clue as to why that something is happening. 

Such is the mysterious quality of two oil paintings by Burnet artist Cynthia Dire, last seen by the public in Burnet at the Herman Brown Free Library during the library’s recent anniversary celebration. 

Dire calls one of her paintings “The Kiss” for obvious reasons. She calls the painting with the zipper “Up or Down.” 

“Both are in the genre of contemporary art,” Dire told The Daily Tribune. “Both try to ellicit a response of some sort from the viewer, either emotional or mental.” 

She attempted to express an element of passion between her subjects in both paintings, Dire said. 

“That is what I was hoping for,” she added.

The color of the woman’s hair and the background in “Kiss” are an orange-red mix, Dire said, adding she applied thick white paint for the woman’s shawl “to create texture and give it a little three-dimensional effect.” 

“Her head is tilted back in a submissive, vulnerable pose — she is off-balance,” Dire said. “The male is dominant and in control, but he is acting toward her in a very tender, compassionate way.” 

Dire believes “Kiss” is “kind of playful.”

“You are trying to figure out whether it is the couple’s first kiss or whether they have been together for a long time,” she said.  

Dire’s focus on flesh tone and muscularity is more apparent in “Up and Down” with her display of straps looped through the woman’s bare arms and draped over her shoulders, as well as her image of the man’s wrist. 

“I put the wrist in a completely neutral position,” Dire said. 

Violet is the color of the dress in “Up and Down,” which Dire believes “is kind of a spiritual color.” 

“Because violet represents spirituality, the color creates sort of a tension — whether the zipper is going up or down,” Dire said. “You get to decide whether the zipper is going up or down.” 

Dire is married to Dr. Daniel Dire, the Seton Highland Lakes Hospital Emergency Department medical director and an Army Reserve colonel, who recently returned from duty with his unit overseas. 

Cynthia Dire painted both “Kiss” and “Up or Down” at home, where she recalled it took about one week to finish both pictures. 

They are based on photos she spotted while browsing the Internet, Dire said. 

“My husband inspires my passion for art,” Dire added. “And, I love to paint because you can take what is there and use it as a springboard. You can completely lose track of time (while painting). You know it is exactly where you need to be. When things start flowing, and you get on a roll, a lot gets accomplished — that is part of the joy of art.” 

Dire is painting a new work tentatively titled “Passion or Pain” that will show a man’s forearm gripping a bed sheet. 

“That is all you see,” Dire said. “You get to decide why the man is clutching the bed sheet, whether he is doing it out of pleasure or pain. You get to decide what is happening.” 

Besides contemporary art, she loves paintings by the “old masters” of Europe, Dire said. 

“I recently spent three hours in the Blanton Museum (at the University of Texas at Austin) looking at paintings by the old masters, looking at their topics and techniques, trying to grasp some of the simple things they did, as well as the more intricate things they did,” Dire recalled. 

The old masters have prompted her to paint scenes based on the Old Testament, including the sacrifice of Isaac; Daniel in the lion’s den; and a man blowing a shofar, which is a ram’s horn still used today in Jewish temples and synagogues to call the faithful to worship, Dire said. 

Dire believes her sister-in-law Betty Heschong has also spurred her desire to paint.  

“She has been a mentor and a loving support to me since I first started,” Dire said. “She has been painting for years and is so kind to share my joy and new love of this art form.” 

Although she holds doctoral degrees both in holistic nutrition and naturopathy, Dire is largely self-taught when it comes to art. 

“For a long time, I put everything creative on hold,” Dire said. “Then, I just prayed for gifts and talents that could be used.” 

Sometime in the near future, Dire hopes fine art galleries in Marble Falls and Fredericksburg will exhibit her work. 

“This (painting) is truly something I have never learned how to do, and yet, it is on the canvas,” Dire said. “I do think my ability to paint is a gift from God. How else do I explain being able to do what I have never been taught to do? Anyway, I would like to give him the credit.” 

When not she is not painting at home, Dire often joins Dianna Goble, Katherine Uitz and several other artists Mondays in Burnet at the Creekside Town Homes, 103 N. Hill St., where they paint, sketch and critique each other’s work. 

“I’m learning how to paint now, techniques and such, by watching demonstrations on painting, getting personal instruction and guidance from other artists, reading and by studying paintings in museums and galleries,” Dire said. 

raymond@thepicayune.com