Have you heard of Paula Rego?

I HAD NOT. And am sorry I didn't "meet" her sooner. Perhaps now is the perfect time, however. Portuguese, she started painting when she was 4 years old. Here is the artist at the right.

The painting of the girl by the window, polishing her boots, was featured in a magazine (maybe The New Yorker?) not that long ago. It fascinated me. Little did I know a couple of years would go by before I found out more about the woman who painted it.

And her "dog women" paintings are not denigrating to women in any way. The animalistic, primal, in charge, natural, unaffected, superior animal is viewed by Rego (we are told by her biographers and critics) as a grand stand-in for a woman's place in the world.

I especially love this picture of people dancing - in couples, young with old, alone - on what looks to be near a seashore.

Great dynamics of form, foreshortening is exquisite and the primal feelings are tangible. Oh to be this good! But of course, if you begin at 4!! - femminismo