Inch worm, Inch worm, Measuring the Marigolds...

This picture of my mother was painted by my grandmother... well, almost. I’ll explain in a minute.

This is what we called my mother’s ‘measuring look’. She put it on when she was skeptical, or askance, or just trying to figure out something. i love this look., and was so pleased to find it again when I was perusing the old pictures. The picture below was taken in 1941, at least 25 years before the painting, but ‘the look’ is there, clear as can be. The pictures in that section have the title "the morning after"... I have NO idea what that refers to, but clearly my mother is not the happiest camper on the block....



My grandmother was an artist. She didn’t start painting until she was in her late 50’s, and took to it like the proverbial duck. She started with water colors and progressed to other mediums, ending with oil painting. I have always thought that water color painting was the hardest, as it allows for so little error. The painting below was a closer example of her later work. I have it on a wall, and, while it is not my favorite, I do like the way she was heading when she stopped painting. My step grandfather didn’t like her working downstairs in the house in Oakland, so he made her quit. Nice guy...

This painting was done in one of her classes, and my mother was the model. My grandmother started the painting, but asked the instructor again and again for ‘help’ until he had done a great deal of the painting, as she hoped. My mother was apparently ‘taken’ with one of the other artists, and was trying to figure out just what she was trying to paint..... hence the ‘look’. I love that it was captured in oil forever....