An old lady carrying her shopping in Portugal 2009. Oil on board 5x7 ins. The painting was mostly completed with a palette knife, with ridges of  impasto. My family and I were on a bus tour for the day, taking in some of the villages in the south of the Algarve. Sitting in the shade at lunchtime, I saw this old lady toiling up the road with her shopping,  the contrast of her dark clothes against the  yellows, browns, ochres, greens of the vegetation was the inspiration for the painting.