The box of jewels.......

Since I first started making this one everyone was asking me....so whats the story behind the painting??
Actually this composition stemmed out of me wanting to mix still life shading, faces, hands, figures, leaves, the use of water colours..all in one painting.
The first thing I had drawn on the sheet was the box....as I started shading it, it started looking so tempting to me....I started imagining it to be this box that held something fantastic in it....something of intrigue and awe.....that's where the girls expression who is about to open the box comes from. As though she is absolutely intrigued by the box and wants to open it.......'desire, lust'.....
Then came the necklace and earrings....symbolizing something beautiful and precious...the blue lady holding the earring behind her back...as though hiding something away.......'greed'...and pointing to the box telling the other lady that there was something inside this.........
Then came the woman telling the blue lady to be quiet.......as though she did not want the blue lady to reveal the secret inside that box to the other woman........'possessive'

At some level as i made the drawing.......I felt the box symbolizing a holder of all our hidden desires, needs, wants.....the woman opening the box...a symbol of ones lust to possess these desires for themselves.......and the other two woman as other people racing towards the same desires.....finding ways to manipulate the other from reaching first.....
as for the story..........it is your own to tell...........