A Day at the Beach: Past and Present


Past and Present
Watercolor

While my imagination runs wild with color and images, I usually tend to stick to painting from photographs that I have taken. I wish I could just paint from my mind, but my detailed obsessive brain wants the image right in front of me. That is why, when my cousin sent me various photos to collage and turn into a painting I was nervous to say the least. I love painting people up close, but she didn´t want people to be the main focus. I don´t do landscape, but she wanted wide open spaces with wind and water and color. So this is me stepping out of my comfort bubble.

Two of her children help create the story and one very special character from the past is painted in. She is our grandmother who with her family visited this same beach every summer.

Grandma, you have the best seat in the house now. Sitting high above the livingroom, a window into our lives from the beach you loved the most. We love you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goal for 2011

Image
It pedal to the metal time or rather brush to the canvas because I took a giant leap and scheduled an art show for December 2011. That's 10 months away, but in watercolor time its like three seconds. So I am back painting in the caboose, I have a table set up at home and in between my two/threeish jobs I am a painting fool! In 2005 and 2006 when I spent the summer in Miwani, Kenya, I drew every night with the kids and taught art classes at a local school. All these drawings came home with me along with a promise to put on an art show to raise money for the community. Well its finally going to happen! I have until December to frame all their pieces and finish mine. Once the time gets closer I am hoping to run an article in the newspaper and get a little publicity afterall December is the "season of giving" right? The show is going to be at a restaurant on the Island that has ample wall space, maybe too much, but I am determined to finish at least three big pieces this year
Read more

The stories one by one.

Image
Cynthia's Story : "Cynthia?," I would ask as she ran around the house on all fours mopping the concrete floor, "how was school today?" Looking up with her dark brown bottomless eyes, she would flash her giganitc mischevious smile, giggle, and weave away backwards with her mop rag. After school and house chores and before cooking ugali and sukuma the night's dinner, Cynthia and several other girls would roll up their play dresses tucking them into their underwear to play dodge ball. You can't properly dive out of the ways of a whizzing plastic bag ball without your dress wodded up into your underwear! Leaning up against the white concrete church wall, 35 mm camera perched on my knee, I tried to capture the long legged leaps and soring lace. Laughter, shreiks and frequent "who is out and who is safe" quarrels filled my Kenyan afternoons. Now if only that moment could be frozen forever, soaked color by color onto a piece of watercolor paper. Then
Read more

The Newest Story

Image
Valparaiso by Night Watercolor A small number of prints of Valparaiso by Night, Marcela and To Cynthia are avaliable please contact dana(dot)cuykendall(at)gmail(dot)com for more information!
Read more