Collectors

This is my submission for the Calypso Moon Artist Movement challenge. Because who doesn't want a challenge? I also like the idea of communing with other painters on the internet, and this group sounded new and fresh and small and (I hope) accepting. The assignment was to paint only two things I collect.

Now I collect a lot of things. Besides small totem poles and vintage jewel-toned pottery bud vases, I collect wind-up toys, bottle openers, vintage table linens, fossils, postcards, books and art. I don't have really huge numbers of anything; for instance, I have three totem poles and five of the art deco style bud vases. They are subsets of larger collections of all sorts of vintage pottery and native american arts and crafts. When I have something I'm fond of, it opens my eyes to other similar things; they practically jump off thrift store shelves. Things like to group together; it's a law of nature or something.

So my biggest challenge was picking which two things to paint. I gathered a pile likely candidates on my dining room, and tried many possible pairings. I liked these two things together. As I painted them, I figured out why. Their colors are pleasingly complementary. Their sizes are similar but not to much the same. They share a vertical orientation. Best of all, they both have marvelous curves. Another big decision was not overlapping them. I think they look more natural standing apart, because each thing is set out for display. I think the painting has a kind of vintage look itself, perhaps because of the subject or perhaps the colors. The totem pole, which is the only one I got from the northwest, is signed by Patrick Seale. I thought about him when I painted the same designs he had painted.