Below Pippi Passes Watercolor

I love painting old people, but I really wanted to portray young people too. It is so difficult to be given permission by the parents to paint children in Appalachia that I had almost given up hope. For so many years I attempted to paint them, but the protective barriers are very strong and very high. In Hazel Patch Hollow, near a Baptist Church, a ten year old girl named Hazel was in the field with her grandfather, some friends and neighbors. This is the one, I thought when I saw her. I had her in my head for years and then, there she was. Her hair was ragged and matted and she was looking at me with such a hopeful face, that look that can tell you a million things. I loved how she was that day, with coal dust smeared on her cheeks, her worn clothes, dirty from play. There was, as usual, a lot of mist curling in the air that day. Her grandfather was hauling coal on a sled pulled by a mule. Hazel had been helping her grandpa and playing with the other children in the field and she inspired me, this little girl, because she had so much pride in her face and that childlike need to feel special. -PAUL MURRAY-