COFFEE SACK GIRL

Oil on Panel
36″ x 24″
Available

This is a portrait of a little girl from the Gedeo tribe near the city of Dilla in the coffee growing region of Southeastern, Ethiopia. She caught my husband’s eye as she stood there with her hands folded on her stomach looking sad and alone.

She is wearing a dress made from a burlap coffee sack. Thus, I titled this painting, “Coffee Sack Girl.” I left this portrait in the “Azuraccio” blue-grey under-painting because she looked sad/blue. Note: My teacher, Frank Covino, taught me that the best paintings come from pictures when the person is caught unaware of the camera and lost in thought. The little girl was totally unaware of the camera. When I saw the photo I fell in love with this child. I thought, “What is going on in this precious little girl’s mind and life?” If I had been with Brad at the time and she was an orphan, I would have wanted to adopt her on the spot and bring her home.and love her. I just had to paint her.

Coffee Sack Girl is painted on an un-tempered masonite panel which is wrapped with fine Belgian linen and coated with five layers of Renaissance marble dust gesso. The panel is backed with oak wood strips. It should last hundreds of years if handled with care and kept out of direct sunlight.