Happy Canada Day to one and all!!
Recently I returned from a ten day painting blitz on the South Shore. I worked outside from nine in the morning until eight at night and did allot of paintings. I always find these painting marathons a huge mental stress. Will I find anything to paint? Can I actually turn a blank piece of paper into something in four or five hours? Am I up to the challenge?
Always there are always stories that come out of painting trips.
After several days of painting in the hubbub of Lunenburg, I was ready for some solitary time. I traveled to the end of a very narrow winding road in West Stonehurst. There I found a lovely stack of old barrels and a wooden wheel barrow.
The lighting was great. There wasn’t a soul anywhere and I started painting. An hour or two later, two large Avis RentaTrucks pulled in beside me.
They were followed by a couple of vans full of people. This small army of folks proceeded to start painting 55 gallon metal oil drums. I couldn’t resist inquiring: “What on earth was going on?” Turns out I had chosen the very spot
that they were going to film the Amelia Erhart Movie and not only were the oil drums going to be part of the set but so were all my lovely barrels!!!!
I had trouble remembering the name of the place where I was staying until I spied two large lily ponds tucked away beside the road. After that, I could remember that it was the Lilyfront Motel and Cottages! Anyways these two lily ponds were chucked full of gorgeous pink water lilies. I kept thinking about how wonderful they would look in my pond! Jim suggested that I do a painting of the lilies and if the woman across the street who owned them came over to watch, I could maybe broach the subject of snatching a lily!!!
The last night I was on the trip, I set to work painting the lilies. Who would know that water lilies all close up in the evening. I persevered and did a lovely painting but the woman never showed up. When I was finished, I decided to be brave and go to her door and ask her if she’d ever consider parting with one of her lilies. My heart was thumping. I couldn’t imagine that I was being so forward as to ask to climb into a stranger’s pond and snatch a lily but I really really wanted one.
I knocked on the door and the woman didn’t answer immediately. I was ready to run. I felt faint. Suddenly, she was at the door, and I was humming and hawing and showing her the painting and making my request. She said “Sure, you can have anything you want. You just go right ahead!!!!!!” I was elated. In fact, I am still elated. Although I had been painting for 11 hours and I was dog tired, I climbed into her pond and rooted away at lily roots with my bare hands, managing to retrieve several nice pieces. They are now potted up and living (I hope) in our pond in front of the gallery!!!!
Today my step niece, Laura and I had a wonderful day of painting on the beach close to our house at Shady Nook. The bay was calm, the day was hot and at high tide we peeled off some clothes and jumped in for a wonderful swim. Certainly this was heaven!
Well today I finally finished proofing a new archival time limited print of Dories Four. Not only are there four dories but this is the fourth version of these dories (Check it out here).
