Monday, November 24, 2008

Street Painting 301

Clear, crisp, and chilly best describe the beautiful weather for Via Colori. What a delightful difference from last year's miserable rained out event! The weather's charming personality wooed the gathered crowd and infected us with artistic camaraderie. Houstonians are incredibly charitable with support for the arts and the community. This event showcases both -- local artists and the Center for Hearing and Speech.


Beka and Wendy enthusiastically agreed to help me with this year's 100 square feet. How wonderfully and completely serendipitous that sweet Zoe helped, too. It just so happened that she and her parents came at the exact time we needed help putting in blue sky and turquoise water. (Zoe is the little chickadee in the bottom left corner.)



Shortly after Zoe left, another young family stopped to watch us work. There was still some yellow foreground that needed to be filled in, so Reese recruited sisters Anna and Harper to help. Again, 100 square feet is a large canvas, (so to speak;) we were grateful for the assistance. As seen in the photo, their mom chipped in as well. Bless them.



The image for this year's event is from one of my paintings called "Waimanalo, Hawaii." Besides the obvious natural beauty, it was a great place to hang out with friends when I lived there. Our routine was to take a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, jar of jelly; body surf and boogie board till we were dog tired; play Frisbee and/or football; then make and eat sandy sandwiches. Good times.


Here are my diligent helpers -- Beka (in the overalls) and Wendy. Beka wore the overalls because she had been forewarned about plumber's crack, an occupational hazard of so much bending.


Reese, Hilary, Joy, and I went back on Sunday afternoon for a sadly mediocre lunch. Wanting to tweak some of the details, especially in the shadowy areas, I also brought some old pastels from home to work on it a little bit. It didn't take much to get it just right. The day before, I was so exhausted that it was impossible to see what needed to be done to complete the project.

So here it is, all finished! Today, it's just a fond memory. The city of Houston washes everything away before Monday morning's traffic.

5 comments:

AnniePhil said...

oh, so lovely!

lis said...

tranquil and inviting! i'd like a pina colada now! ;) and love the cracks in the cement...they add something.

Sarah Hazel said...

A pina colada sounds yummy!

It's been almost a week since working on this and I'm still sore from the effort.

Joan Breckwoldt said...

Sarah, it's beautiful! And how special that it was such a collaborative project.
Joan

Joan Breckwoldt said...

Hi Sarah,
I've tagged you on my blog - see my blog for more info.
Joan