Sunday, July 19, 2009

MARKET BOOTHS


It’s a pleasant warm day, not too hot, not too cold, and I’m staying comfortable under my market umbrella while I paint the colorful busy marketplace. I am putting lots of people in this painting. My strategy for painting people is quick looks. A hat from one, a shirt from another, looking at light and dark patterns, I can block them in. It is getting too crowded to see the tomatoes through the people. I wait for a gap and snatch the colors on the fly.

A woman comes by whose daughter is working at doggie day care. She wants a painting as a memento. Her daughter arrives, and I ask her where she’d like to stand in the painting. She points to a spot. I sketch her in, pink shirt, checked pants, blonde flipped hair, and pink shoes. I tone down the guy in the red shirt behind her, and sign the painting. They are delighted. (The painting is gone, no photo.)

I end my lovely day at the market with brightening up a painting I did here last year with some flowers. Here it is.

2 comments:

Celeste Bergin said...

I wish I could see the one that is gone--I bet it was great. Your last year painting is charming. So...was this in Hillsboro?

Karen Lewis said...

This was at the Lake Oswego Farm Market, where I show art and demo about two Saturdays every summer. It's a very fun, energetic place.