Another small oil painting I did on one of the panels (25x25cm) I was using for the Jacaranda paintings - primed with Indian Red Oxide acrylic paint. I tried to keep the brushstrokes loose and not get hung up on details, but, yoh!, small faces are hard to render with oil paint, let alone tiny writing and bicycle tyres... (Those who know him may recognise one of the icecream buyers in this painting :o)
These icecream men are a part of South African town and city life - flocking in numbers to any outdoor event or gathering and at school gates (though many schools are trying to discourage it so the kids don't overdose on sugar and tartrazine) and the ting-a-ling of their bells are a summer background sound. Do other cities have mobile icecream men - or women for that matter? I glimpsed one on TV on a documentary about Tokyo, but don't recall seeing any in other places that I've mostly fleetingly visited. I've painted them a few times - Vivienne has the one pictured on the right, and this one I did for someone who was emigrating.
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8 comments:
I do recognize that blokie on the left! Well done - another delightful slice of home to enjoy.
I haven't seen an ice-cream truck around here - ever - I don't think.
But in Portland there was an annoying little mini-truck that went through our neighborhood several times a day in the heat of summer, playing a tinky-tonk tune over and over AND OVER again... bringing the kids out like the Pied Piper.
I like your new photo, Cathy! It's nice to see your face!
Love the ice-cream-vendor paintings--especially the bike-riding one: you caught the motion of him coming round the curve!
We have vendors here that drive around in vans playing hideous annoying music that you can't get out of your head and that, even now as I think of it, makes me want a Choco-Taco. Wish we had the bicyclist!
Another nice photie! And a nice painting of a nice bloke. I love my ice cream man, and even though he is very small and has to share his patch on the wall with other CPG images, he is the subject of much admiration from visitors.
In Perth there is the odd 'Mr Whippy' van...really ghastly ice cream (and some dubious tales). Nostalgia for the bicycle ice cream men of Bulawayo ...announced by the ringing of the bike's thumb-bell, and kids would come running out. They were so lovely to us. The best place to stand was up on the front wheel of the bike so you could see into the insulated box and dig through for the best ice, usually only a 'tickey''s worth.
We have the annoying van as well, complete with horrifying urban legends! I too have such fond memories of the Bulawayo icecream men (outside the school gate!)
Lovely painting! Never seen or heard of an ice cream man on a bicycle... only the van with the tinny music. But we did have a "rag man" when I was growing up in U.K. He collected old rags (old clothes and such - I have no idea what he did with them). When we'd see him a block or so away we'd run home and shout "Mum, the rag man's here!" She'd gather up the old stuff she'd saved for that purpose, and in exchange for the rags he gave us a plastic bag with a coloring book and little packet of crayons inside. We got to color, the man got his rags and Mum got her peace and quiet for while ... everyone was happy!
HA!
You're getting good at those umbrellas!
Great subject, well painted. Paint on.
Oh, I remember these ice cream bikes! and you did beautiful work on them...love that one at the right and the one for the clients too...you've mastered your trades well!
ronell
Beautiful painting of that vendor riding his ice cream up that pink road. Great piece!
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