"Wash Day in Haiti", is a painting from my Haitian Series. It depicts a young girl, outside washing clothes in a small wash tub.  When we were in Haiti, it amazed me how the children there are self-reliant and basically take care of themseves throughout the day. 

This image shows the first step I took in painting her. I've included a shot of the original photograph that I enlarged to the actual size that I wanted to paint. You can see the grid and image lightly sketched on the canvas. I started with her face and background, mostly a wash- in with thinned oil paints. When I was starting this painting, I concentrated on large value shapes first.