Elle Noir

Elle Noir

Elle Noir is a well-known drag performer. She was interviewed on CBC recently because she was having a special celebration for her 18^th birthday (of her Elle Noir persona, that is). This portrait is based on a photograph I took of her in a store after the Pride Parade in Truro. I was nervous about approaching her, but she was very gracious and had no problem when I explained that I was planning a series of portraits of drag performers for a show celebrating diversity. I didn’t realize until I started working on the painting that she had very cleverly used the colours of the Pride flag in her makeup, so I also used these in the background instead of all the details of the store.