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Paula Rego (English, 1935- ) Rego’s work often reflects an assertive feminism, colored by folk-themes. Her style is often compared to cartoon illustration. As in cartoons, animals are often depicted in human roles and situations. Her later work adopts a more realistic style, but sometimes keeps the animal references — the Dog Woman series of the 1990s, for example, is a set of pastel pictures depicting women in a variety of dog-like poses (on all fours, baying at the moon, etc.). Clothes play an important role in Rego's work, as pieces of her visual story-telling. Many of the clothes worn by models and mannequins in her work are representative of the frocks she wore as a child in Portugal. She has favored pastels over oils for much of her career.
