design #186 “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”
design #188 “New House at Christmas”
I love making designs with a purpose. These two were just that. I actually painted “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”and that was going to be it, but then decided making a second one was absolutely necessary to continue the story, thus I painted “New House at Christmas”. Let me explain —
Did you ever name your pet after a boy or girl’s name because you could never use those names you still had in your mind after having all your children and knowing you wouldn’t have anymore children because, well, that’s just the way it is when you get past those child bearing years. I still have names I would have loved to name my children, so I thought it would be fun to use those names for the characters and animals in my paintings, thus, Steve and Charlotte, and Rachel the dog now exist.
After Steve and Charlotte lived in an apartment, in the painting “Romantic Walk on a Snowy Night”, oh let’s say in the city of Chicago, they moved to a house in the suburbs. The house was painted after I woke up at five in the morning one day and saw the beautiful fallen snow and was looking at my neighbor’s house across the way. The lights were on and I thought, wow, I have to paint that, but perhaps make the setting during the day, so I sketched it and painted the scene. I thought this would be the perfect first house for Steve and Charlotte.
When you looked at the park bench did you notice Charlotte forgot her scarf on the bench? I had to think of a way she would get that back. There had to be a way, and I thought when I painted the house, “New House at Christmas” I will paint a snowman wearing the scarf. Yes, she went back to get it on the bench as the story goes, and they used it when they made the snowman as you can see!
So, I’m having lots of fun painting, creating, thinking of a purpose for my paintings, it’s so much fun. And I still have names of children in my mind I would have named if I had more children, hmmm, this story and these paintings are not over yet, what will be next?!
I also have to say I love paintings that I paint just for fun, or a landscape that is beautiful, or I want to challenge myself and paint glass, so far I have enjoyed painting everything. Hope you too have fun exploring the art of watercolor or whatever medium you enjoy. I love the way Bob Ross explained mistakes when painting, “happy accidents”, also, I love the way my favorite YouTube Art Teacher, Lindsay Weirich, explains painting, “you either succeed or learn.”
Happy painting,
Vicki