our portraits

I had almost forgotten how tiring it can be to sit still for a longer period of time and to keep you eyes focused on the same general area – that is until yesterday.

To backtrack for a minute, about a week ago I had a phone call from a friend at the University of the Philippines in Manila. Some alumni had formed a painting group and would it be alright to bring the 15-member group to the house so they could paint our landscape. We’d get copies of their work – all in exchange for serving lunch to the group. Sounded like a good deal.

When they arrived, they toured the house and garden and took lots of pictures. They then proceeded to set up their easels and paint paraphernalia in the dining room. I was sort of puzzled – why in the dining room if they wanted garden scenes? Turned out they had changed their minds and wanted to do portraits.

In the morning, they painted two female friends of ours, dressed in native garb. It was our, Noel and I, turn after lunch. That’s when I found out that sitting still can be very tiring and that, after an hour or so, you develop itches all over.

As for the garden scenes, they said they’d use the pictures to do their paintings.

Recognize either one of us?