Day 13: Draw What You Had For Dinner

We drove out to Kelowna for Mom's birthday tonight.  I came home a bit early, thinking I would drop Yogi off, then go out and pick up her gift.  When I got home, I saw the line drawing for the portrait of her and dad I was thinking of doing.  It was about 3:30.  We had to leave at about 5.  I thought, well, why not just paint for a bit, and if it's coming together fast, I'll give her that instead of a stack of books to read.

Not having much time I think can actually help a painting.  No time to muddle and overpaint.  I got the painting to a point I could at lease show her.  Her feet weren't visible in the reference photo, so I left them out, took the painting up as her present, looked through old pictures to see what kind of shoes she wore then, and brought it home so I can add her feet.  I haven't done it yet, but you'll find the footless version below.  My dad lit up when he saw it.  Turns out the car is a Martin, it was tan, and they drove it for their honeymoon.  He may be struggling with his memory now, but his memory for 1953 is perfectly intact.

I'm glad I did this in time for her birthday. The nieces bought her just about the same stack of books I was going to pick up.  That's one good thing about painting presents - I never have to worry that I'm giving a duplicate!

Pye and Besh Visit

Two of my all time favorite artist souls stopped in for a sleepover last night on their way across the country.  Pye and Besh are heading from their home in Newfoundland to visit Besh's family on Vancouver Island.  I got to know Pye and Besh when I was living in Collingwood, Ontario.  They came in on a timeshare presentation and I was the big bad closer.  It was instant love.  She is a FANTASTIC painter (http://www.keli-annpye-beshara.ca/) and he is a brilliant, revolutionary knife maker, among so many other things (http://www.beshknives.com/).

We had a big feast of a dinner.  Afterward, I noticed Pye eyeing up my box of crayola crayons, sniffing them, looking wistful, so we whipped out two big pads of paper and did crayon sketches of each other.  Fun!  That's my version of Pye at the top of the post, and her version of me here.  It was a total show-and-tell exchange of an evening, food, art, knives, business ideas.  Awesome.  I love you both!  I'm so glad you came, and that you had a chance to meet Greg.   Until the next time...