Sunday, November 25, 2012

Painting with Baby

Karen Winslow  "Self-Portrait with Daughter Annie"  1988
Karen Winslow is one hardcore mother-artist. While many of us will admit to the occasional quick session at the easel with a dozing toddler on our laps, very few people I know have done any painting standing at the easel with fully awake baby on the hip. Winslow, a contemporary oil painter based in Vermont, gets the Mother's Medal of Heroic Painting for this feat.  Winslow herself says of this piece, "This was painted in 1988, and my Annie is now married with kids of her own."



Katy Schneider  "Self Portrait with Olive and Easel"   1998
Katy Schneider also must be awarded the same prize for painting with baby in arms. Schneider is a contemporary painter based in Massachusetts whose work is concerned mainly with scenes of her own domestic life.  The mother of three children Schneider's small oil paintings are like amazing little snapshots in oil paint of her growing children and evolving family relationships. While Schneider's paintings show the particulars of her own life they somehow go beyond the individual and tap into a more universal consciousness of what contemporary life feels like to those experiencing it. 

3 comments:

Marianne said...

I can just feel the weight of those babies on their hips!

Nancy Bea Miller said...

I feel the same....that precious heavy weight!

Kate Stone said...

Something so hardcore about painting with a baby on your hip! I remember watching a documentary about Frank Frazetta. They interviewed his daughter and she fondly recalled sitting in his lap and watching him paint his blood-thirsty barbarians when she was little.