Chapter One: The Romance is the first in a four-part painting series which maps a heroine's life-cycle through personal archetypes.

In Chapter One, my series of paintings about the pirate Anne Bonny and her Captain and lover Calico Jack Rackham, the story of their romance unfolds against the backdrop of the ocean landscape.

To image Anne Bonny is to embody the delicacy and aggression of the waves on which she sailed. To portray her deep love, her strength, her courage and her greed, one must embrace the nature of the landscape in which she chose to exist. My paintings begin in this place, where a wild and unfathomable landscape meets an epic love affair and the sublimity of romance means each embrace could be the last.

Anne Bonny sailed from 1719-1720 with Calico Jack Rackham. My initial images of Anne Bonny and Calico Jack are based on the anonymous engravings of the two pirates that appeared in the book A General History of ... the Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson, first published in 1724. Using these engravings as a starting point, I replicated the poses in the images to create two formal portraits of the pirates. I then originated subsequent images that focus on the relationship between Anne Bonny and Calico Jack. Calico Jack's flag, depicting the skull and cutlass emblem, and a painting of the ship on which Anne Bonny and Calico Jack sailed will complete the series.

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Chapter One: The Romance credits:

concept Annie Simpson

starring Annie Simpson as Anne Bonny
& Jack Culverhouse as Calico Jack Rackham

camera Brit Barton

costume design Annie Simpson & Jack Culverhouse

location Port Aransas, Texas

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