Young African Mother Painting

Motherhood typically starts early in Central Africa. This Zairian mother may have been about 13 years old when I saw her carrying her child around. She spoke a dialect that nobody else in our group could understand and therefore I was unable to ask her who the father was and who took care of her and the child. A few years later I discovered a photo I had taken of her as I left her village. This watercolor is my attempt to reconnect with and remember her. Parts of this painting are unfinished. I cannot explain why, but when the inexplicable signal came to my mind that the painting was ready, there remained parts of it that I had not yet finished. Yet, I decided the stop and leave them undone for fear of spoiling the painting if I continued working on it. Two years later while in Frankfurt I saw a wonderful exhibition titled "Cézanne: Finished - Unfinished." It focused on the father of modernism's creative process and the likely reasons that he often decided to leave undone parts of his canvases. Maybe painting the entire surface was unnecessary or even detrimental to the work. In the process he helped foster modern art.

Painting:Watercolor on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:10 W x 11.6 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.