Pastel over Watercolor Underpainting

“As I painted ‘In My Mother’s Arms’ I was thinking back as a young girl when my Mother refused to let me leave the nest – An older boy with piercing eyes brought me a dozen roses and asked me for a date – but she wouldn’t let me go.  I  pouted and watched the flowers wither and fall as I sat by the window feeling like a prisoner. I wanted to experience all of life that night and couldn’t understand why not.  I remember the feelings clearly and I wanted to paint my feelings, and so I wrote:

In the watercolor under painting I formed the long drips to give the feeling of the prison bars that kept me in…the carefully woven nest was my caring mother.“