Coincidence

Happy New Year, everyone!

Today is the birthday of painter Paula Rego, who I first heard about when I was studying art in England in the early 90s and whose work inspires me on many levels. Not the least of which is that she is not only a woman but a mother who managed to nevertheless have a serious career as an artist. Pretty unusual.

But her work is great too, all by itself. This early piece of hers is one of my favorites:

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But she is better known for her later work, which features women and girls in many different allegorical and somewhat mysterious situations.

Anyway, there was an odd coincidence a few years ago when I was flipping through a book on her work and ran across this painting:

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I had never seen this piece of hers before, but a number of years previously I had done this painting:

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Although they are very different, the similarities were surprising to me then and still are now. It is not a common pose.

So happy birthday to Paula Pego, who I now think of as some kind of painting cousin of mine, thanks to this coincidence!

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