While in Mexico during the first 3 months of 2007, toward the end of that stay, I was having some problems with a landscape I was working on. (The time my husband and I stay in Mexico is a working vacation; we rent a lovely small home with a very large painting studio which we share.) It was the edges of the piece; I was very happy with all of the work I’d done on it, but couldn’t find the way to finish it off around all the edges. So Alvaro and I sat down that evening and just looked at it. Finally, he turned it horizontally and we looked at it some more. Suddenly, I saw a woman’s face looking out at me. There seemed to be smoke from a fireplace beyond her. The next day I looked for her. It was not a clearly defined face, but the eyes were there and so was the look. I decided to drop the landscape and take the gift she seemed to be presenting me. The result is the painting below, called “Woman in Smoke”. She is very odd, but I feel such a gratitude toward her, that she turned me in a new direction.
I was so intrigued by the appearance of this woman that I decided to just paint very freely, then see if somewhere in that freedom another figure would emerge. Here is a second figure. This one actually reminds me of myself as a young mother. I was both intimidated and fascinated by my gorgeous daughter, by this new young life. I’d love to hear from anyone coming to this blog, whatever you feel about my work.
Finally, one more that I just recently finished. I call this one “The Housewife’s Dream”. She looks and feels very Russian somehow. Woman in Smoke is 41″ x 31″; The Housewife’s Dream is 40″ x 30″ and Young Mother is 38″ x 22″.
