Isabel de Castilla

This a really old, little watercolour that a viewer reminded me about. I based this figure on a woman I used to know in central Spain and she was called Isabel. Her husband worked for a Spanish ambassador, tidying up after dinner parties, taking care of his weekend house and generally living a very grand life during the week, a really nice guy, the husband that is. Anyway, his wife kept sheep and also dressed in an odd array of clothes that had once belonged to the ambassador's girlfriend. But she had a strong fashion sense and on an average day out with the sheep she wore astonishing chinese, silk jackets, polyester trousers, fluffy slippers and a teacosy on her head. So the above drawing is based on her, but in this she is carrying a dog which was for a children's story that I never wrote.

The actual size here is only about eight inches across.