After a long process of sketching various poses, I finally settled on depicting Priscilla as a tragic figure for this portrait. I can't seem to pull my thoughts away from the terrible difficulty of the lives of the women who first came to America. Priscilla was 16 years old in 1620, and her entire family died the first winter in Plymouth. She must have been overwhelmed with fear and grief.
John Alden, on the other had, has come to me as an all-American hunky northern woodsman. He did do some hunting, trapping and trading in Maine and no doubt would have purchased a plaid hunting jacket at LL Bean had it been available. There is a caveat to his attractiveness, though, which you can read in the text at the four corners:
Like most of the people of his time, John Alden would have had lice and fleas infesting his hair and clothing.
Two more colors to be added.
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