| Departures |
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The Girl and Dog Exhibit was Paula's first commercial success in England. Recognizing her talent she was approached by Malborough Fine Art and signed a contract by the end of that year. Malborough had a global network which spread Paula's work about the world for the first time and also increased their prices quite a bit. Along with a new gallery Paula once again was starting on a different chapter in her art. The Maids marked this new period and it was the first large scale and purely figurative work she had done since the 1950's, these new works had an added sophistication and ambition. The Maids was based on a play by Jean Genet in which the maids murder their mistresses. The paintings Paula's usual assortment of "props" and what Vic called an "awkward naturalism". Vic who had been severely ill for a long time, died in 1988 and the paintings Paula completed right before and after his death all deal with farewells, each speaks of impending loss or knowledge of loss. The Dance which she started right before he died has nostalgic feel to it with no sense of menace or subversion. Her son Nicholas says that "Since Dad died there is not the same conflict between the characters in the paintings."
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