This is the best picture I could get of this image, it is acrylic paint and is fairly small, about A4 in size. It started out as a tester for a large portrait I was working on at the time but I became intrigued by how much you could know about a person from a small section of their face. I also love the way the image just fades away into the background. Below is a biro drawing out of my sketchbook, just familiarising myself with the shape and expression of her face.
Final painting
Biro sketchThe final image turned out to have the exact effect I had desired. I wanted to create a symbolic image of my time in Cuba, in an attempt to sum up the people, the sun, the culture and the way of life. Every time I see this image it makes me smile back in admiration at the face of the woman - selling necklaces to rich tourists at the top of a hill in the boiling heat, making pennies, barely speaking a word of English with an unlit cigar hanging from her mouth... and loving every minute of it.
'Lady with Cigar'
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