Boat Boy Inle Lake, Myanmar

From another great trip to Myanmar to visit a good friend who teaches there. We were 5 ladies travelling all around the country from Yangon where my friend lives in the heart of the city to Bagan and the amazing 5,000 temples some dating from the 13th century. While travelling to our cottage out in the middle of Inle Lake, we encountered this sweet fellow who kindly pulled our boat in to one of our stops along the lake. He had to wade out and drag us all in as when there it was drought time just before Monsoon season and the lake was very low.
I liked the cropping of the image I shot with him crouched down to pull us up aside the dock. The white areas on his face are thanaka, sort of a sunscreen that is all around in very large cakes that everyone dips into and applies to their faces, some in fun patterns to protect from sunburn.
This painting was underpainted with a mixture of hard pastel sticks blended with alcohol, overworked with a mix of softer pastels working up to my softest.