cmsa; "portrait of mary winchester, our lady of lone pine". c valle. So this is what happened: when i began this painting i just had time to paint the head before i got busy full time with art chores getting ready for back to back shows. I kept the incomplete head painting right by my bed so it was both the first and the last thing i saw every day.
I have been troubled now and again as i've grown older, with the idea that old age is a time with little hope of growth or future promise, as it is the end rather than the beginning or even the prime of one's life.
What amazed me about the eyes in the well wrinkled face of the portrait, was that every time i looked, the eyes looked back at me with an expression so full of hope and promise, that i was able to understand that it was this youthful perspective that turned her meagre existence into something she actually seemed to delight in. Lesson learned too; there's a child's soul looking out of every pair of "old" eyes.
