On a recent trip to Greece, I took this picture of the man who was in charge of managing the mule train. They move the mules up and down this very steep trail with passengers from the port. This man was in a huge hurry. I'm surprised that the picture even turned out because he was going as fast as possible up that trail. Obviously time is money for them on this tiny island that is so dependent on tourist trade. We opted for the bus up the hill but were very entertained by the mules with their passengers. The painting is so meaningful to me because of the memory and because I felt how hard these animals and men work to earn their living.
This painting was of the workers who brought the train back down to the port for their next load of passengers. The mules were kept close together in this line and checked carefully before going down. It was so amazing to paint this scene of the animals descending. I wanted to indicate how steep this trail was. Hopefully this does give the viewer a sense of that descent. The photo that I took had lots of distractions in it which had to be edited out.
