About Puck: on the Eve of a Midsummer’s Night:

Inspired by William Shakespeare’s play, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", this painting of Puck is actually set before the events of the play begin, hence the subtitle "on the Eve of a Midsummer’s Night". The mischievous Puck sits casually playing his flute near the path where Helena, Hermia, Lysander and the others will eventually make their way into the woods from Athens, as though he is already aware of and anticipating the events of the Midsummer’s Night and the trouble he will cause them.

Near Puck’s foot grows the magical purple "love-in-idleness" flower, which Puck will use to cause the tangled love web which gives rise to much of the humor in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream". Puck himself, a traditional faerie who is able to assume any form he pleases, is shown here in the traditional format of a satyr, or half-man half-goat, with horns and hooves, reminiscent of the famous Greek god Pan.

The painting, Puck: On the Eve of a Midsummer’s Night, was actually staged in the forest near the tiny town of Culrain in the highlands of northern Scotland. This may be far from the ancient Greece where William Shakespeare’s play, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", is set, but as William Shakespeare himself was English, a British setting also seems very appropriate. The Scottish backdrop for this painting of Puck was modeled during a stay by the artist, Damon Denys, at the nearby Carbisdale castle while on a backpacking tour of Scotland. As an interesting side note, the model for Puck: On the Eve of a Midsummer’s Night was none other than the oil painter, Bryan Larsen, who is a good friend of Damon Denys. And Damon, in fact, has himself modeled for Bryan Larsen in his own right.

The vivid red sash worn by Puck was painted with pure cadmium red to create a vivid compliment to the wide array of greens that surround him. Puck’s vividly colored attire is itself a reference to the color schemes made popular in the paintings of the Venetian Renaissance master painters, which was intended as a subtle reference to the classical setting of William Shakespeare’s play.