Kelley Swain’s The Naked Muse is a subtle, fascinating memoir about art – from the object’s point of view – as well as an extended meditation on travel, painting and what it means to see.
Swain describes her first experience disrobing for a group of painters, modelling for international artists over the course of six years, and posing as four saints for the frieze of a chapel in Sicily. Inviting readers into the intensely personal world of life drawing, Swain brings out the light and shade; both on the canvas and within ourselves.