CLOTHESLINE

My previous painting, "Special Delivery" would be a great Father's Day gift.  This one which I'm calling, "Clothesline," would be a nice one to give on Mother's Day.

I grew up long before most homes included an automatic dryer so I've done my share of hanging out clothes.  I even blogged about it here.  And this isn't my first painting on the subject of hanging out clothes.  Another one I posted about here.

And I'm well aware of the job becoming a miserable chore when the weather is freezing or rainy or when a big wind full of dirt comes up.  Still I persist in remembering the joy of white sheets against blue sky with birds singing, accompanied by happy baby babble.  

So I drew up a composition and went to work layering in colors of green for the trees and lawn, working around all the areas I wanted to retain the white of the paper.

I got to this point without much concern.  Trees and grass are pretty forgiving even when the artist gets a little sloppy.  The dog went okay with his happy smile and floppy tongue.  But I had to put the whole thing away and think about it overnight... 

...before I got brave enough to take on the faces of the mom and baby.  This and many more of my paintings are available for sale at my Etsy Site, Watercolors by Leenie.