Art: Old - Really Old

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Many… MANY… (like, probably, 45) years ago, I had this idea for a painting. I grabbed the nearest paper (a brown paper lunch sack) and a ballpoint pen to sketch it out before I forgot about it. After about 15 minutes, I had all the shapes drawn. I also had color notes on the back of the bag. I have the bag around here somewhere. If I find it, I’ll post a pic of it.

As soon as I could, I got a piece of one-sided masonite. I gessoed the wrong side. (I like that it looks a bit like canvas.) And I blocked in the underpainting.

This is what you see above. Actually you are only seeing part of it because I don’t want to spoil the fun.

So here I am, 45 years later. I’ve moved so many times that I’ve lost count. I have a different husband. My children are grown and my grandchildren are becomeing adults. I’ve schlepped this board around through all of that… overseas and back. It’s lived in snow and in hot garages. It had stuff stacked on it, was used to cover things, and been abandoned for years. It had lots of dust, grime, dead bugs and unknown mung stuck to it.

So I took it out yesterday and cleaned it front and back. It has a little bit of something “paintish” stuck to it along one edge. But that’s ok. The colors got a lot brighter after it’s bath.

I’ve always thought that, some day, I would finish it. Maybe it’s time!