Life Painting: Rose

Oil on canvas

30 by 40 centimeters

Rose wears glasses, but the artists want her to take them off for the sitting. She has a weathered but indomitable face, as if life has wrestled with her, but she has not given up. Not yet. In a break, she reads aloud a poem she has written; she self-publishes a volume each year. As she walks around, admiring the many different angles of her face and body that we capture, she tells me that she is a massage therapist who recently lost her job.

She works hard to find her pose after each break, and to sit completely still. At the end of the session, I thank her. I’m sorry she lost her job as a therapist, because she is an excellent artist’s model.