Romantic Botanicals #31

Pickpocket Alley

Yarrow is a native prairie plant that I put in our back alley plot.

The neighbour, his brother and their friends are packing bikes in a trailer because they are going camping to Falcon Lake. It looks like fun. One says," It looks like a great day to paint"  I think "Every day is a great day to paint." It is garbage day and I wish I had thought of that before I started. The recycling, garbage and yard waste truck go down our narrow alley at different times. One driver stops and says he is an artist too. He asks to look at my painting so I show it to him. He says "You got anything else?" His coworkers squish the yard waste while we talk and stinky water splashes out beside me and I turn my painting away and block it with my body.

This is another Gothic piece with it's dark background and frail but lively figures in the foreground. This is my first ever painting of Yarrow. It is a tall and skinny plant like a street urchin waif that is underfed. I try many things in the background, light turquoise gradation, the other plants but I wipe it off several time and go back to the somber background I started with. I fought with it to make it cheerier but it is what it is and I let it be.

romantic botanicals #31, Pickpocket Alley  May 30,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

It is nice to meet other artists in most circumstances. I sit here and think I need to be painting the garage.