This double portrait was painted after a vintage photography from the family album. Two kids I’ve never known. From distant times almost no one remembers by now. But their appearance has settled in my subconsciousness. Merging with my childhood memories and distant pictures from times passed away many years ago. And it was this reminiscence of the distant childhood, so different yet so similar to the childhood today, that I was working on. Many things may change but childhood memories stay. They stay with the most beautiful light of the garden in spring, in the most beautiful colors, telling us the story of all the childhoods yet to come, remembering all the kids we once were, playing in the garden…..

In the garden Tamara Jare portrait painting, oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cm (27,5 x 39,4 inches)

For me, however, that beloved, glowing little word happiness has become associated with everything I have felt since childhood upon hearing the sound of the word itself. Hermann Hesse

I think it’s a great tragedy of childhood that you only really appreciate it once it’s done: it’s very hard to feel appreciative of the gifts you have until you’re gone. Greta Gerwig

I always remember my childhood house with happy memories. There was a beautiful garden, and outside my bedroom window was a jasmine vine which would open in the evenings, giving off a divine scent. Carolina Herrera

“Childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul.”
― Ivan Doig, The Whistling Season

“I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers. I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer — and what trees and seasons smelled like — how people looked and walked and smelled even. The memory of odors is very rich.”
― John Steinbeck, East of Eden