timeless beauty never dates

'The Village Beauty'

From the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh, 1785
Opaque watercolor on paper

(image from Master Painters of India at the Met)

The beauty in this picture is lifting her right shoulder very slightly as she

flirtatiously gazes at something behind her. Its almost like she knew she was 

being watched by an appreciator of her timeless fecund beauty, and ripeness.

She could just as well be a girl today, standing on the tram self-consciously aware

of herself, yet probably innocent of her power: timeless feminine beauty.

Tibetan dancers in Dharamsala

I look at this picture a lot. I took it in Dharamsala when I was there a few years ago. Somehow the colours remind me of the people I saw in the Andes when I was growing up in Columbia in South America. Only here are Tibetans in India! I love the echos of these saturated colours...