Mieko is a strong, not looking to please, women. 
She is comfortable in her skin and not afraid to look inward for answers she already holds. 
She makes time for herself and does things which make her happy. 
 
She is a succulent wild woman!
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Mieko was created on a whim with absolutely no idea of what I was going to paint. I had a mixed media board I had painted bright colours on years ago, which I knew I was ready to paint over, so I gessoed over it. The orange paint seeped through the gesso and made an awful apricot colour which I never use, but I was keen to work with it. I grabbed some random ephemera - a lama template, black and white printed paper, some scrappy doors, spice pile, a succulent pot, a moon and some painting cutoffs from a previous painting.
 
I sketched a face and stuck down the black and white paper as her coat. It reminded me of the 60s coats with the 3/4 sleeves. (See last picture and you'll know what I mean).
I used impastos and watercolour crayons to paint her. I really wasn't happy with the apricot, it had to go. I kept the orange idea with her hair but she needed a background to make her pop. 
I worked with the ephemera to see what worked and stuck it all down.
Then I used watercolour pastels to add squiggles over the whole background in 2 different colour.
 
Lastly, I painted the arms and used graphite, gold pen and poscas to add marks and tidy things up.
 
Scroll through to see her framed in situ, close ups and progress shots.
 
Mieko is on mixed media board and measures 40.5x30.5x0.3cm