MAEOW THAI SI NOM THON DREAMS OF A GARDEN

I finished this painting which I started Monday. It should not take almost a week to do a watercolor, but I had to stop and "rescue" it so many times.

To me, as a finished piece, it has so many issues, SO MANY. But as a "process piece", I did learn so many things.  I am torn between starting a totally new piece, and doing this one a second time, using what I learned the first time. I wonder how long I will continue as a "painter" before I quit having these feelings of self doubt. Hmm. 

I love the photo I took of Mae for her "portrait".  There were two images, one full profile - very clear and high definition, and this one, which was not so good, but had a better face pose. Mae sat so still for her photo because there was a big old spider outside the window, way up in the corner. She really wanted to get out there and GIT IT!

"TOY STORY, 1929"

So, Deon Matzen, my watercolor teacher and Guru, gave our little painting class an assignment - take one of the little toy Chevron cars from her collection and create a painting around it -- subject matter and style of our choice. The car she gave me to paint was this little Woody.

I knew I wanted to put it with other toys, maybe under a Christmas tree, or in a toy box or sandbox. I started searching around the internet for images of kids and toys. I found an antique photo of some children with their toys. It's probably from the Netherlands (based on the tulips painted on the wooden duckie pull cart and the costume on the dolly). The children are about the same age as my mother in an old photo I have of her out on the farm. I slipped the Woody in among the children's other toys and made it look like someone had hand oil tinted the photo.

The painting's title is "Toy Story, 1929", in honor of my mom, who was five then, with a haircut just like the little girl holding the dolly. Mom probably had a doll just like hers, too.