Yesterday, I finally got out and painted. It's about time! The weather has been awful, but finally we had a nice enough day to take my well stocked "ArtCart" out for a spin. I put on my QR code T-shirt. Got the dog ready, and started to push my cart the five or so blocks to the waterfront. It's funny what you miss even with all the planning you put into things. I had to train my dog to walk next to me as I pushed the cart. He's pretty smart so that was the easiest part. Pushing my cart the first two blocks I realized that I'm no engineer! The axel that I used is threaded and although I didn't know that you could do this... I put it on backwards! As I walked the bolts were actually tightening on the wheels and it go harder and harder to push. I was tempted to turn around and call it a day. It became so hard to push that I couldn't even get it home. I eventually had to turn it around and pull it. The bolts loosened up almost instantly, and thanks to the lock nuts I had put on, they would only loosen so far... So now my pushcart is a pull cart. But it works. I got some odd looks pulling my cart across town. I'll justify it in my own mind as "visibility". At one point, I saw one of our local whack-jobs riding a bicycle with all kind of boxes and flags strapped to it and thought to myself, "what a loon." Then I realized that people were probably thinking the same thing about me as I tried to pull my cart and walk my dog across Main St.
We finally got to a spot where I felt there was a perfect combination of subject matter and visibility. I set up my easels, tied up my dog and started to paint. You can see from the photos above and below that I'm only about ten to fifteen feet from the harbors edge and in the picture below you can see one of the ferries coming back from Nantucket. So the visibility is great. At one point, as I was starting to paint, the Harbor Duck-tour was going by and I could hear a little kid exclaim,"Mommy, look at that man painting!" So, I'm pretty sure I was seen.
There were a couple of minor glitches that I did encounter. One being that I took off my shoes to paint. Well, apparently this beautiful little park that sits right next to the Steamship Authority's Main terminal is where al those poor dogs who are either about to get on, or have just gotten off a two hour ferry ride relieve themselves (apparently, the wealthy don't scoop)... Enough said. Which leads to; Next time I should bring more rags. (and I'll leave my shoes on!)
Some less graphic things that I had to deal with we'll chalk up to learning experiences. I'll bring more water next time, a trash bag, and I've got to figure out a way to keep my paintings from blowing over in the wind. On that note does anyone know how to get blue paint out of Golden Retriever Fur?!?
One of the paintings below ... or at least from that series, I will be auctioning on Facebook starting on Monday, June 24th (2013). Friend me by clicking HERE so you can be a part of it!
All in all it was a pretty decent experience. I did draw some onlookers. Some were impressed. One BITCH came walking over looked at my paintings and said,"Oh, you're just an amateur, I thought you were trying to make a living at this..."(irony is wonderful) And to her I say,"#@!!$ You, M'am!"
The paintings above are not finished yet so don't judge me by them, once I finish this post, I'm of to finish them and start a few more.
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