Blue Boy and Pinkie … sort of
(posted 02/12/2021)
I grew up in a small Western Reserve town in a very old home that had been lived in by my great grandparents. As the youngest child with few playmates out in the country, I spent many summer days snooping through closets and the attic. There were several open boxes of antique postcards, photos, books and periodicals. Luckily, I still have some of these items nearly fifty years later!
These two portraits began as illustrations in a magazine from the late 1800s. I digitally cropped and edited the illustrations, then applied encaustic and PanPastels. When I put the boy and girl together, it reminded me of two other old framed prints I have from the house. My mother always called them “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie.” The paintings she was referring to are (1) “Sarah Barrett Moulton: Pinkie” (1794) by Thomas Lawrence; and (2) “The Blue Boy” (circa 1760s) by Thomas Gainsborough. Their actual names were Jonathan and Sarah. Here is an interesting blog post I found that gives much more detail on those two paintings which inspired my titles. Link to English Historical Fiction Authors