This task has plagued my mind like the last segment of an orange that no one wants, yet you cant bring yourself to throw away. Originally i leapt into it with glee sorting through several of my favourite paintings for something that would inspire me.

I thought i was onto a cracker when i remembered Sir Francis Dicksee's painting of Keats' poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci". Without hesitation i began the long process of changing ownership of the sword from the Knight to the Fairy/Maiden.

"Ha ha!" Thought I, "I will make a simple and subtle statement about the modern day theft of the traditional masculine phallus, igniting the much overlooked issue of modern feminism, what a clever little man i am."
After several hours of editting i read and realised too late that Keats' original poem was already based on the idea of the female stealing everything from the male and leaving him a blubbering mess, so all i was doing was reinforcing the the original meaning of the artwork. Zounds and blast it all! Back to the drawing board I metaphorically stomped, fearing the giant red X of shame, and more importantly pondering why a girlfriend of times past had sent the poem to me in the first place.

My second attempt came in the wee hours of the night where i finally went with one of my favourite paintings, Pierre-Auguste Cot's "Le Printemps". This time i decided to aim for a more subtle and small alteration. (On my first go however i was so subtle, no one i tested it on managed to notice, so i had to sleep on it and give it a second attempt)

For me, Le Printemps gives you the essence of one of the rare perfect moments you can share with a partner, perhaps a post-coital glowing union in a bath of sunlight, or a silent midnight hour watching them asleep, arms curled around you.. and Cot has managed to present it to the viewer in this beautiful scene.
Of course in my experience this moment is fleeting and the harder you try to hold onto it the more evasive it becomes, so in my jealousy of these two preraphaelite lovers of perfection i decided to give the viewer the satisfaction of seeing the oncoming inevitable ruining of the moment with the rope holding up their swing about to snap.