Spring's Retinue by Norman Lindsay

In the world of female beauty, February is a dry month. In fact, if February was a country, it would be in the middle of the Sahara desert.

Beauty-wise, nothing noteworthy ever seems to happen in this, the most arid part of winter. Beautiful women disappear from city streets. No one knows where they go.

There are no major beauty contests or bikini fests in February. There's the Fall fashion shows, in New York, London, Milan and Paris. New Orleans has the Mardi Gras with its gratuitous toplessness. But what about the rest of the cities in the world? What about those of us stuck in the desert - a desert which, much like the Sahara, is expanding every year.

A few years ago we desert dwellers felt lucky if we happened across an oasis like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which was held in the first week of February. But that's gone now. Blown away with the sand. It's been moved to some other time of year.

The only source of water left is the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, at which our camel train is scheduled to arrive on the 21st. Yet even that waterhole seems to be drying up, getting less and less beautiful, less and less refreshing these last several years.

We are all sensitive to this kind of beauty drought. We all need female beauty whether we know it or not. It attracts all forms of human being, from the most mangled spirits to the most glorious specimens. It compels us, invites us, replenishes us. It promises life, health, bounty. It teases, delights, shines like the sun and nurtures. It ripens us as it ripens. It is wise and it wisens us. It is playful, and it makes us so. It has always been this way. We all look forward to it, and are propelled forward by it.

Female beauty is to people, as Spring is to the Earth.

Perhaps this is what Norman Lindsay was trying to depict in his monumental painting Spring Retenue, pictured above. Hopefully it will help get you get through the February desert.

It is one oasis that won't dry up.

To see more of Lindsay's work visit the site of the Desert Queen, click here.