Friday, May 7, 2010

Wheelbarrow

Sometimes I search far and wide for an exotic or "artistic" motif to paint. But I end up having the most fun painting a humdrum, ordinary subject that was sitting next to me all along.

5 comments:

Steve said...

Great little study, Jim. Makes me want to go out and paint my 6 cu. ft. model -- whose wood handles are different colors due to a years-ago replacement. Also makes me think of how Wyeth used worn, everyday objects to symbolize the humans who used them. You didn't happen to do this on Yupo paper, did you? The green wash on the left kind of looks like it, but the control in the main area suggests maybe not.

James Gurney said...

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I was thinking of Wyeth. The paper is from a red clothbound watercolor sketchbook from France, made by Sennelier. What's Yupo paper?

Unknown said...

Its reminds me an illustration I did for the poem red-wheel barrow.
(http://parkillustration.blogspot.com/2010/04/red-wheelbarrow.html)

Thank you for great posting all the time, it inspires me a lot!

Steve said...

Yupo is a synthetic, non-absorbent "paper" that some of my friends like for the way watercolor behaves on it. The area of green to the left of your wheelbarrow resembles the kind of effect it produces. I haven't tried it, I'm not attracted to it. Here's a link:

http://www.yupousa.com/paper/index.php

One last thing. The way old tools evoke human spirit as you've done in this painting -- and Wyeth did so often -- feels like the visual equivalent of what Seamus Heaney does with words in poems such as "Digging."

Dan Gurney said...

Where are the chickens?

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.