Scared of what? Of nothing more than not being happy with what shows up on my canvas, I guess. The product.
Don't know if scared is the most apt word, but there ya have it. Sometimes it's hard to start.
That said, I keep starting.
Today I tackled wet stuff hanging outdoors to dry. Had been wanting to paint clothes on a line for ages but hadn't found many clotheslines, let alone one with good lighting or setting. Forged ahead anyway.
Now I have a first clothesline painting. Started with my reference photo upside down to once again push my brain to see shape, color, and value rather than physical things.
This scene was at Takodah. Let me tell you about wet items on clotheslines at Takodah. They're lucky if they ever get dry, hanging as they do mostly under trees. I have visceral camp memories of trying to tug cold clammy resisting bathing suits onto my body.
This little clothesline, with its towels, seems to have found enough sunlight to cast shadows. Lucky people in that cabin!
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| Tryin' to Dry in Time 6x6", acrylic on canvas board 2015 |
10 comments:
Looks like you did good being brave! i love the colors! Liz
I love this one!!! I can smell the pine trees in the wet suits and towels and already dread tugging on that soggy bathing suit.
You'll know which suit and towel are yours by the name tags sewn on them! Thanks for your nod of appreciation for this scene.
Liz, thanks for your nod re my bravery—I appreciate your encouragement! The warm rusty pine needles informed my color choices. Just looked at your blog and particularly enjoyed "Fish Pup" and the second post-snorkeling sketch from the DR in which you depicted life above and below the water. You are playful and inventive in your art!
Ooh, I just love this one. So evocative of late-August, late-afternoon sun in New Hampshire. Makes me feel like I've just come up from the waterfront. Time for flag, hurry!
Thanks for your feedback about this painting's evocative qualities. Ellie has hung her stuff on the line and has already set table 14 for dinner; color guard's in place for flag lowering; "dining hall, ho-o!"
Hi, Dotty. I feel always good when I see it in paintings, photos and in person. It brings me good childhood memories like my mom hanging wet clothes on the line and me playing around it and sometimes they turned into fun toys to paly with in winter when the clothings (if it's too wet) got icicles at the bottom of them........... this painting reminds me those memories. Nice.....!!
And thank you for stopping to my blog and leaving me a really kind comment. I also reply to you comment so please revisit my blog and read it. Happy painting !!
Oops, I just realized that forgot to change something in my comment. What I meant "it" on the first line is 'clothesline' :)
Thank you for your lovely comments. What fun to hear that my painting evoked all sorts of clothesline memories!
You got me thinking about my own clothesline memories, and I thought back many decades to when my mom used to hang clothes outdoors at my early childhood home.
Imagining my mom outdoors, performing that basic task, going through the little physical steps of picking up wet clothing, clipping on clothespins, reeling out the line, and repeating the steps until done, was a sweet memory. Especially since my mom lives in a nursing home completely dependent on others; now, she sits outdoors in weather just like the weather in which she used to hang clothes, but others of us have our turn to clip wet clothes to a line.
I did sort out what you meant but thanks for taking a moment to clarify!
Here's are a few lines from Elizabeth Berg's novel DURABLE GOODS about moms and clothes on the line:
"I used to stay near my mother when she hung out clothes ... I used to help peg things on the line. I liked the slight resistance you felt, the satisfying muffled squeak of wood anchoring cloth."
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