I really like to see this painting! And not only for I like the painter so much or the model which of course does a lot to this admiration. No, it’s the colours, the capture of the gaze, the way it resembles Maria. Those well known freckles that do not only bring back her face to my mind but the whole time I spent on her island. And I can sense the love the painter has put into this portrait brushstroke after brushstroke while trying to make all these colours in the end look like this wonderful woman. Thanks a lot Karen for doing it and congratulation for the result.

It is a privilage to be part of Karen's large portaits! Thank you dear.
As far as the freckles are conserned, I should really be very careful with Greek sun...

Wear the artist's hat Maria to protect your skin from the Greek sun. Of course you'll look great - just as Hanjo cut such a dashing figure in his cream fedora two years ago at Trapani.
Congratulations on a well-executed and superbly sensitive portrait, Karen, and thanks for sharing it with us.

All right, I would like to share this with you guys:
Karen and I seem to have a strange telepathy which is the reason why we call each other "brujas" = witches. Various incidents have contributed to this, last of which being some time ago, when I had her on my mind very vividly the whole day, until I got worried something might had happened to her. So I sent her an sms asking whether she was ok. She answered me: It has been all day that I've been working on your portrait...

Well Hanjo is right, it was made with love for this greek witch, that doesn't seem to need a telephone to contact me. Intuition, telepathy or special communication..who knows, anyway I enjoyed (and suffered) painting these naive and at the same time slightly dissapointed eyes, because I know them. Probably they have something of my own actual state of mind, because Maria's are livelier, but this is the risk one takes when painting a portrait, you can be there as much as the sitter. I also enjoyed painting a bigger format, (this is for you Hillel) I feel absolutely immersed in colours, these might not appear so evident in a small photo, but are there, and in bigger formats make the work more enjoyable and free, you start to feel addicted to them , once you've tried one, at least it happens to me!
Anyway,thanks for your comments, I couldn't answer before because I have been without internet at home, but every now and then I take a look and see what's going on, hope I am connected again soon.

Ok, I see your point... you feel like you can spread out a bit in a larger format. I understand that, it's just that I feel portraits, especially yours are very intimate so I visualize them as being smaller, more actually life sized than oversized. Its my problem not yours... in any case I do go along with the general consensus and think this is a lovely painting and one of your best.

That’s a funny idea that intimacy should show better in a smaller size. I mean standing in front of a portrait the size of Karen’s Maria or even more extreme in those I have with the text in my catalog (230 x 190 cm for a cropped face) it’s like touching the models nose with yours. And that indeed is a very intimate point of view isn’t it? So that means that you have to „walk“ in that face-scape for hours and hours and I can tell that one get’s to know it pretty intimate after that.

I think there are two senses of intimacy in question. One is the one that the painter feels when doing this large painting and, as Hanjo says walks on this facescape for hours. You really get to now the face you are working on really well even if, in my opinion, you can do the same in smaller scale. It is up to the artist.
The other is the sense of intimacy that the viewer can have. Here I’d say that closeness is not a synonym of intimacy. When you stand in front of a face this size it seems more likely to feel awe. The emotions that this face shows are being enlarged too and you might as well feel them heavy and their presence covering everything else including your own. If my comprehension of the word intimacy in English is correct, then it is more about experiencing the other’s inner world by letting it be confronted with yours, as both selves are part of the same dimension. Of course we don’t know if intimacy is the question at all here. Maybe this enlargement of emotions and urgency are the point and not intimacy.

“Aprender a mirar los ojos, a mirar lentamente, profundamente, aprender a escuchar con los ojos. Nadie puede soportar la interrogación del silencio, se ha escrito. Nadie puede soportar la interrogación de los ojos. Los ojos nos descubren y nos encubren. Cuánto tiempo tarda un hombre en ser dueño de sus ojos, cuánto tiempo he tardado yo en habitar mis ojos, vivir en ellos, poblarlos. Porque generalmente huimos la región de los ojos, demasiado clara, y nos agazapamos en los sótanos del cuerpo. Hay que irse a vivir a los ojos como a lo alto de la claraboya, a las claras buhardillas de la casa, a los cielos del cuerpo. Estar en mis ojos para que se me vea y para ver. Instalarse en los ojos como en las estancias más soleadas del cuerpo.”
Learn to look at the eyes, to look slowly, deeply, learn to listen with the eyes. It has been written that no one can endure the questioning of silence . No one can endure the questioning of the eyes. Eyes reveal us and conceal us. How long does it take a man to be the owner of his eyes, how long has it taken me to dwell in my own eyes, live in them, inhabit them. Because usually we avoid the eye region, too clear, and we crouch down in the cellars of the body. We should install ourselves in the eyes, like in the upper part of the skylight, in the clear luminous attics of the house, the skies of the body.
To be in my eyes, to be seen and to see. To install oneself in the eyes the sunniest rooms of our body.

This was written by Paco Umbral, in his book “Mortal y Rosa”, which I read a long, long time ago. Today this short text came to me again, and it seemed to describe very well the way I approach these portraits of people I know, the way I revere the eyes, the clear windows that introduce me into the person I’m painting, the most important part of a face. It seemed so casual, and at the same time so related to them, that I thought I’d share it with you all. More than about intimacy or distance it is more about diving into this liquid part of ourselves that say so much, without uttering a word.

Maria...Maria...I know her???? Hanjo do you like my BIG friend???
I love it!!!

Karen, questo ritratto di Maria è una meraviglia.

Ciao Vito,e
grazie, è un commento che mi lusinga specialmente perchè viene da te, che qualche volta mi hai detto che non capisci il senso dell'arte figurativa e non la sai commentare e neppure vuoi farlo.un baccio.