Bus Stop

I still haven't started doing my intended sketch-a-day, though I have been very busy with other things.

But to keep my blog going... oooh it's hard... I'm posting this painting I did, and sold, some while ago - I did the same scene in watercolour, and again in oils, and could have sold it over and over. It's one I rather wish I'd kept - I only seem to have old paintings left here that I don't particularly like - apart from the ones of my children which I wouldn't sell anyway.

She was a woman I saw from my car - sitting so beautifully dressed, cream outfit lit up in the blue bus shelter, occupying it so dramatically, and patiently waiting to get where she was going - I went home and immediately committed it to paper. It's very seldom that a scene just begs to be painted like that - I wish it would happen more often, but, sigh, it usually takes a lot more work and effort than that! Since I painted this, the bus shelters have changed in Johannesburg - they no longer have seats in them, just a pole to lean against. There have been other scenes that I have wanted to paint and haven't, and now times, circumstances have changed and one just doesn't see them any more.

For instance, on sunny afternoons you used to see groups of domestic workers - 'maids' - dressed in their maid uniforms of matching overalls, aprons and caps, sitting gathered on grassy pavements, (or sidewalks) chatting and laughing, enjoying the sunshine and each others company, and a break from their tedious work. It occurred to me that I don't seem to see them any more - I never got around to sketching or painting them - opportunity lost, I think, though I'm still looking...