Friday, February 29, 2008

Rock pools

I've had a busy sort of a week, so nothing new to post, but as I'm also using this blog as a record, this is an old watercolour of my son at the rock pools at Kidds Beach, Eastern Cape - a place with very precious memories for all our family. It's painted from a photograph taken by my sister Gillian, who always takes beautiful photographs, and remembers to take them at special times in her and our lives - unlike me, who has big holes in her albums. I submitted this to a local watercolour society competition and it came back with the comment - 'Nice reflections, dog has three legs'... which put me in my place! I'm sorry I cropped it at the top - there was plenty of paper left up there, and room for the sea and sky to tower over the little figures. And I made my very blonde child into a brunette, overworking the hair.

4 comments:

Gillian said...

Lovely to see this painting again! But I think it was Russ who took the photo. Your watercolour is a real treasure and a reminder of wonderful times at Kidds Beach. Thanks for posting it! A quick comment on the Jack Russell's 4th leg... Ag man, it's OBVIOUSLY PERFECTLY HIDDEN BEHIND THE OTHER - dah! I would never have noticed that it was "missing" if you hadn't mentioned it in your post. My mind's "eye" automatically assumed it was there.

Cathy Gatland said...

Yes, well, that's what I would've thought... the judges apparently didn't have a mind's eye! Thanks Russ - I should have asked permission first!

Vivienne said...

I always think the figure is Huw, probably because of the hair.
It is the loveliest image of boy and well balanced dog oblivious to the world, but also unsentimental. The fourth leg is complete nit-picking. Lots of dogs do very well on 3 legs. (They would complain about Picasso's boy and horse, that the lead-rope-rein thingy is not there.)
Great Kidds' Beach days.

Adam Cope said...

great success - i'm jealous

though a bit of white sunlight on the boy's head to match the high white on the knee would have been nice , but hey...the dog's nose is a particularly 'brushy' touch.