An aborted attempt

“It’s gone! The bread is gone!” I exclaimed as I checked out the back of his SUV for more loaves of bread. “Do you have any more? It’s all moved!”

The vendor trying to sell bread at the Fearrington Farmers Market thought I was being funny. In fact, he laughed his head off at my remarks. He was trying to sell bread; I was trying to make a painting. We each had our own agenda. It didn’t matter to me that he’d been kind enough to share his big umbrella at the threat of rain.

Here, folks, is an unfinished painting. The base coat, put down very wet and very loose is pretty much what most of my plein air watercolors look like before they receive their calligraphic line treatment. I’m including below a photo of the scene that I’d hoped to capture. I had to lay the painting aside to dry between the base coat and the calligraphy. I may and may not go back into this painting. I’m used to people moving, cars moving, but somehow I wasn’t thinking the bread would move. Fortunately for the bread vendor, I was wrong.


Photo left:
the view from the bread vendor
Painting above: “Unfinished”