When I Met Harry



Chase City VA, pastel, 16x12

I finally had this framed last week--the 98-percent finished pastel had been lying in my studio since October .  When I showed it to friends, they said, "That's Harry's house."  I asked, "Who the heck is Harry?"

I was one of the artists invited to display a few works at the celebration of MacCallum More Museum and Gardens' listing on the Virginia Landmark Register and on the National Historic Register.  Since it's in Chase City, I set up this painting at the Sunday afternoon event (I also took my iPad and a printed copy of my iPad Bottle painting). 

When I Met Harry

And.......someone fetched Harry!  He said he chose the old mill because it was the most interesting building in Chase City.  Perhaps the building and occupant found each other.

Every local who saw the painting had a great story about the Southside Roller Mill, the water tower, or what they did down by the railroad tracks

MacCallum More is a wonderful place to spend an afternoon; here's a photo from an earlier visit. 

Autumn at MacCallum More Museum and Gardens



Chase City VA



Chase City VA >or<
pastel on Wallis paper, 16x12



I finally got off my porch and made it to the next town.  Chase City is about 15 miles away--a ride through the country side; then suddenly there's a view from an overpass that reminds me of Baltimore.  This is it--more or less.  I moved the water tower and omitted a few buildings.  For this view I'd have to look up and down; right and left.  I will add that Chase City has some very beautiful homes, and MacCallum More Museum and Gardens (where I've exhibited my work) is there.  For painting, I chose the grittier side. 

The tall building in the center has lettering on the bricks:

THE

SOUHT
SIDE

ROLLER

RINK

My guess is that the sign painter, after climbing down the 30-foot ladder, said, "I'm not climbing up again to change it to SOUTH SIDE--people will know what it means."  Actually, the sign can't be read from the road (most of these buildings are falling down)--I noticed it when I zoomed in with the camera.  From making posters I know how easy it is to transpose letters.

Update Oct. 31.  I just learned from my friend Everett's comment that this was a ROLLER MILL--not a Rink.  I guess that means a grist mill where flour was made.  I learn something new every day.

This work has been an education in how not to work with pastels.  I began the painting at the Y; then continued at home in the upstairs bedroom.  My nose was completely stopped up from pastels.  I looked at this the following morning and thought, "What crap."  I took it outside, whacked it against the side of the house, then used a house painter's brush to remove all the pastel.

I started again--got about three-quarters through and suddenly decided I should glue the paper to an Ampersand board.  To ventilate the workshop while spraying glue I opened both doors; then had trouble with placement of the paper--15 minutes is a long time to hold one's breath.  I covered the painting with wax paper, rolled it to remove bubbles, and used three of my wallpaper sample books to weight it down.  It worked.

I then put the painting on my "big easel" (for you, Celeste) and applied pastels to the sky and water tower.  The pale blue fell down onto my buildings!  It looked like sheets of rain.  I cleaned it up by blowing the dust and repainting; now I believe it's almost finished.

First I need to figure out how to cut off the top two extra inches of Wallis paper (18x12) without smearing the work; I cropped the photo.  I don't want to think about framing--glass, spacer, frame, fingerprints, etc.  I'll worry about that later; I just ordered a set of watercolors.

Web Removal

Spiderbelle?  pastel on Wallis sanded paper, 16x10

A germ of an idea from last month.  When I was clearing my workshop of spiderwebs I realized I always open my mouth when I look up.  My mother called this posture "catching flies."  I thought of painting it but there are many paintings of people looking up screaming--scrap that one.   From that idea to this painting:

1: A woman looking up, open-mouthed, holding a broom.   2:  Add the fan and a spider web.  3:  Which fan?  We have 3-blade fans w/lights, 5-blade w/o lights, and 4-blade w/o lights--make one up.   4:  Draw it with pastels on Wallis sanded paper (a new experience).  5.  Decide that one of the fan blades should mirror the angle of the lifted arm.  Erase the whole drawing with triangular sponge makeup thingys.  6.  Find a lifted arm--found one in a 1946 book, The Dance--right arm of Isadora Duncan.  Close the book and imagine the arm.  8.  Remember the beginning of the TV show "Zorro."   Can I get a "Z" in here--from the fan blade/broom/arm?   8.  Tape the paper to a foam board, find some rubbing alcohol, get the Holbein pastels out of the workshop and go to the YMCA for Thursday (today) art.  9.  Use the Holbein pastels for wall and ceiling; realize they're OIL pastels--retrieve the soft pastels from the car.  Carry on with alcohol and pastels.

I like it.  Now I'm deciding--

Add clothes?  Facial features?  Hands?  Spider webs hanging from fan?   Or, just work on the broom handle and call it finished?  

FYI:  I paint like I sculpt--build a nude, then add clothes.  No, this is definitely not a self-portrait--it's not even my arm.