Ainda Tenho Saudades Tuas….I Really Miss You

Returning to my studio after a joyous and restorative week in Portugal I painted this woman – or rather this woman very much wanted to be seen.  It was one of those magical times when it just all comes together and, quite honestly, I wonder how much control I had over the whole process!

Wanting to honour the Portuguese influence that I felt informed this work, I was introduced to the word SAUDADES when searching for a suitable title – this is exactly the word I was looking for and has no English equivalent.

Saudades refers to a sense of loneliness and incompleteness…

“Saudade is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present”

quote from In Portugal, Aubrey Bell

For me this is the perfect word to describe the complex inner-life of this expressive woman