"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, July 27, 2009

Only Gypsies and Peasants

The name of this self-portrait is "Only Gypsies and Peasants" and comes from a statement that my grandmother made when I had my ears pierced at an early age. My grandmother was from the "old school" and strongly disapproved of me getting my ears pierced and her statement to me at that time was that only gypsies and peasants pierced their ears. She was from a different time.
I painted this self-portrait for another website - Watercolor Passion, and the challenge for this project is self-portraits this quarter. It ended up depicting me a good 20 years younger ... now this couldn't have been on purpose, but for some reasons the wrinkles kept disappearing magically, so who am I to try to change karma? Right? It is 1/4 sheet of Arches 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper and was painted mostly wet on dry in an impressionistic manner.

7 comments:

Barbra Joan said...

Good work Barbara. , and hey why not make the most of our 'artistic license'?

RH Carpenter said...

Very interesting and appealing self-portrait - and that's the fun of painting SPs: you can change what you don't like!
I like the hairstyle from another time, too.

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

One of my teachers, who also happened to be the mother of my boyfriend at the time (!), had a saying: "that is just cheap, common and tawdrey"! She was s Southern Lady and this is how she felt about piercings in general, never mind tattoos that would follow in later years! I wonder if she is still alive?!

Ginny Stiles said...

Dear Gypsy...I love this painting (sans wrinkles) and found I did the same thing when I did my pink hat painting on my blog! We all relate to that tendency! I love paintings people do of wrinkles. Just not mine! Hahahaha. Will you be putting this one into David's challenge for Sept 12?

Barb Sailor said...

Barbra joan...Thanks...that wouldn't be the first time I took advantage of 'artistic license!' :)

Rhonda... the advantage of being on the web is that 99% of the people really don't know how many wrinkles I do have...I have the curls today - but the scarf makes it look like 1970 - I used to wear scarves and headbands a lot. Headband are back, I notice!

Susan...my grandmother was a real southern lady also, and 'cheap, common and tawdry' is something she would have said. She was a wonderful person and I have such great memories of her. She really dressed me down the time I went for a ride on the back of my brother's motorcycle because I had young children and had no business taking chances like that.
She would have a fit that some ot her great-grandchildren have tatoos. My only comment about the tatoos is that those tatoos aren't going to be so stylish when they are my age. Visualize sagging butterflies....

Ginny...glad you like this painting...yes...I will be entering this in David's challenge. Don't you just love his blog?

Nancy Standlee said...

Hi, Barb, Ginny sent me over here and I love your Gypsies and Peasants and the title. Yes, why not take off a few pounds, sags and lines - it's painless and cheap with a little paint.

Barb Sailor said...

Welcome, Nancy...I am so glad that Ginny sent you my way! Thanks for your nice comments on the self-portrait - what's a little artistic license among artists?